


My Girlfriend's Sister's Keeper

by bodybroke



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, Family Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-21
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2017-12-27 06:08:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 52,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bodybroke/pseuds/bodybroke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brittany isn't the only Pierce that has Santana wrapped around her finger. Snippets of Santana's life with her two favorite people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> I liked writing Brittana/Ashley so much, I started this. Each chapter is loosely tied together, moreso towards the second half, but they're mostly just little oneshots or glimpses of Brittany/Santana with Brittany's little sister Ashley. Most take place in a slightly AU version of S3, and then some venture into a totally AU version of S4, and then even years into the future. Pretty much all fluffy cuteness. Most chapters are written, and I'll post them as I edit them.

"Your turn," Brittany cheers as she renters her bedroom, all clean and ready for bed. They don't usually go to bed so early, but it's been a really tiring day, coming out to her family and all, and both girls are physically and emotionally exhausted.

Santana quickly finishes typing out her text to her mother letting her know she's staying at Brittany's for the night, and tosses her phone on the bedside table. She moves towards the door, meeting Brittany half way for a kiss before she leaves. "Mmm, minty fresh."

"Hurry up," Brittany laughs, smacking Santana's ass lightly. "I wanna make sure we have time to get our cuddle on before bed."

"Yeah, since that's all we're gonna be able to do now," Santana grumbles, just remembering the new open door policy Brittany's parents have inforced. She suspects that was partly her own mother's doing, though, since normally the Pierces were totally laid back about that kind of thing and something tells her their coming out this afternoon wasn't exactly breaking news for them.

Brittany pouts back, kissing her girlfriend's cheek to try to make her feel better. "I know. We'll just have to get creative."

"Ohh, challenge accepted," Santana replies, tickling Brittany's sides and rushing out the door before the blonde can retaliate.

Her before bed routine is somewhat involved, but she's pretty fast about it, and tonight she's done in just over five minutes. She's heading back to Brittany's room when she sees Ashley's bedroom light is still on. She's confused for a moment, before remembering the Pierces have recently extended her bedtime an extra hour, much to her excitement.

"You ready for bed, munchkin?" Santana asks, as she pops her head into Ashley's room. The little girl is in her pajamas and sitting on her bed, but isn't under the covers yet.

"Yep!" she cheers, closing the book she had been reading. She wishes she didn't have to go to sleep yet, but her parents _just_ changed her bedtime, so she can't complain. "Will you come tuck me in?"

"Sure," Santana agrees easily, more than used to Ashley's bed time ritual after all the nights she's spent at the Pierce house. She was worried things might feel differently now that they were out and Brittany's family knew for sure they were dating, but so far everything is the same as it's always been. "Actually, can I talk to you about something?"

"Okay!" Santana might just be Ashley's favorite person in the world, so she's always excited about any attention Santana wants to give her. Santana sits down on the edge of her bed, patting the space beside her, which Ashley immediately fills.

"Earlier, when me and Britt told you and your parents about us," Santana starts, not really sure what to say. She figures this is probably a conversation Mr. and Mrs. Pierce should be worrying about, but she and Ashley are buds, and she wants to make sure things are clear for her. "You understood what we were saying, right?"

"That you guys are girlfriends now?" Ashley asks, looking up at the older girl with bright blue eyes that look so much like her sister's. "And you hold hands and kiss and stuff, like Britty used to do with Artie?"

Santana cringes a little, but nods, running her fingers through thin blonde hair. "Yeah, kinda like that. Is that okay with you?"

"'Course," she shrugs, like it's no big deal. And in her eight year old mind, it really isn't. "I'm glad cause I like you better than Artie."

"Oh yeah?" Santana asks with a chuckle, secretly really glad to hear that. It had been bad enough having to see Brittany with Wheels, but it'd really suck if Ashley liked him better.

Ashley nods enthusiastically, tugging at the sleeve of her pajamas. "He never really played with me, and never wanted to watch movies with me when I asked him and Britty to. And he was always talking to me like I was a baby! And he smelled like grandpa," she rattled off, trying to remember what else she didn't like about him. He didn't really come over that often, and it felt like such a long time ago to her. "But I like you more than almost everybody in the whole world, so even if he was nicer to me, I'd totally still like you better."

"You," Santana begins, suddenly overwhelmed with affection for the little girl she's always thought of as her own little sister. She hooks her arm around tiny shoulders and pulls her into her side for a hug. "Are one of my favorite people in the whole world, too."

"After Britty?" Ashley guesses knowingly, her question kind of muffled by Santana's body.

"After Britty," Santana admits, ruffling the girl's hair as she moves away again. "But _right_ after. You're number two. There's like six billion people in the world, so number two is pretty huge. Granted, I barely like anyone, but that makes you even more special."

Ashley giggles at the older girl, already feeling pretty special. Santana always manages to do that some how. "What about Lord Tubbington? Is he third? Cause he liked you better than Artie, too. He always hissed at him."

"Yeah, Tubbs is cool," Santana admits. She usually pretends to hate him or be jealous, because then Brittany goes out of her way to make sure she knew she comes first. "But don't tell Britt."

"Promise," Ashley swears, holding up her pinky. Santana smiles and hooks her pinky around the smaller one.

"Okay, time for bed, missy," she tells her, wiggling their fingers and standing up. She picks up the giggling girl and throws her over her shoulder to pull down the covers on the bed.

"Tana! Put me down!"

Santana can't resist tickling her before dropping the hysterical girl back into bed. She gets in a few more pokes before she relents, letting the little girl catch her breath. 

"She's never gonna sleep now," Brittany comments from the door, the biggest smile spread across her face from watching the pair. She just loves watching Santana with her little sister. Other than her, Ashley is probably the only other person Santana is always nice to. And okay, maybe it makes her think about how adorable Santana would be with their kids when they get older. But she'd never tell Santana that.

"Britty!" Ashley waves at her sister as she tries to catch her breath. Santana throws Brittany a quick smile before pulling the covers up over Ashley to finish tucking her in.

Brittany watches Santana brushes the blonde hair out of Ashley's face and drop a kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight, kiddo."

"Tana," Ashley asks through a yawn, already calming down. "Can you drive me to school tomorrow?"

"Of course," she tells her, tugging on the cover to make sure it's up as far as it'll go. "Now go to sleep, I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay," the tiny blonde says, her voice already sounding tired. "Night Tana, night Britty."

"Night, Ash," Brittany calls, holding her hand out for Santana as her girlfriend makes her way over to her. She squeezes Santana's hand and flips off the light, pulling them towards her own room. Once inside, Brittany closes the door and presses Santana up against it with a smirk.

"I think that door's supposed to stay open."

Brittany ignores her. "What took you so long?"

"Ash wanted me to tuck her in."

"That doesn't usually take ten minutes," she comments, bringing her lips to Santana's neck, knowing it drives the other girl crazy.

Santana's eyes flutter closed for a moment, already finding it hard to speak. "I wanted to talk to her."

"About what?"

"Us," she breathes out, bringing her hands up to rest on Brittany's hips. Almost immediately, Brittany pulls back a bit and she groans.

"What?" she asks, confused. "Us? What'd you say?"

"I just wanted to make sure she understood what we told her this afternoon," Santana answers, pinching the blonde's sides. "And that she was okay with it."

"And?"

"She gets it and she's cool," she whispers, trailing her hands up her girlfriend to loop them around her neck. "You know she likes me better than Artie?"

Brittany laughs. "Duh, San. I'm pretty sure she likes you better than she likes _me_."

"She has even better taste than I thought then," Santana teases, leaning forward to kiss Brittany lightly on the lips. "Don't worry, Britts. You're still _my_ favorite."

"Mmmm," the blonde hums against her girlfriend's lips. "I like you best, too."


	2. Mean Girls

"What are you doing after school?" Santana hears from behind her locker door. She jumps a bit, slamming her locker shut to reveal her girlfriend on the other side. Brittany grins at her, and taps her on the nose in greeting, knowing the other girl isn't comfortable with huge displays of public affection yet.

Santana can't help but beam back at the blonde, grabbing her hand before it falls away, to hold in her own. She knows it's hard for Brittany to control her natural urge to be affectionate with her, but she's trying so hard for her, and Santana couldn't be more thankful for her patience. "Just some homework, probably dinner at your house," she informs her, giving her hand an affectionate shake. "But no big plans. Why?"

" _Well_ ," Brittany starts, drawing the word out in a telltale sign that she's about to ask for a favor. "Someone called an emergency student council meeting for after school, and apparently I'm supposed to be going to those, so I have to stay after for a bit."

"Okay?"

"But we were supposed to pick up Ashley from school today," she finishes, using her free hand to pull at the pleats of Santana's Cheerio's skirt. "And last time I forgot to pick her up she sat outside for two hours and almost got abducted before I remembered to get her."

"Britt Britt," the brunette laughs, remembering that afternoon and all the ice cream they had to buy Ashley to make it up to her. "She was not almost abducted, that was her principal offering her a ride."

The blonde pulls a face. "But he's really creepy, San. And he was driving a white van."

"Yeah, a _miniv_ an."

"Anyway, she still cried and I still got grounded, so-"

"I'll pick the midget up," Santana cuts her off, silencing her with a squeeze of her hand. Brittany's face lights up and she bounces on the balls of her feet in excitement. She glances around quickly to make sure there aren't a lot of people in the hallway, before she leans forward to give Santana a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"Sorry," she immediately says, though the grin on her face contradicts her words. She reaches out and wipes at the other girl's cheek as if it'll take the kiss back. "I couldn't help myself."

Santana's face is about to break from smiling so big, letting her know that she didn't mind in the least. "It's okay, B."

"Ash's school gets out at-"

"Three, I know," she finishes. "We've been picking her up from school for years, Britts, I think I can handle it."

"Thank you, you're the best," Brittany tells her in a voice that sounds like she just agreed to give her a kidney or something. "Just watch out for that creepy guy in the white van, okay?"

 

Ashley's school is only about a five minute drive away and McKinley lets out a half hour before them, so Santana ends up waiting around with a bunch of moms for about twenty minutes before she hears the bell ring, and a bunch of little kids start flowing out. Whenever they pick Ashley up from school (which is more often than not), they wait in the same spot at the end of the sidewalk for her, so Santana knows the little girl will know where to find her.

Ten minutes later, and Ashley still hasn't come out. She cranes her neck to see if she can see the tiny blonde anywhere, but there's no sign of her. Instead, she spots one of Ashley's friends she knows from sleepovers at the Pierces, being picked up by her mother. "Hey, Katie!"

The little girl and her mother both turn around at her name, and the girl smiles and waves at her. "Santana!" As she makes her way over, she can see Katie's mother giving her a questioning look, obviously wondering who she was and why she knew her daughter. "Mommy, this is Santana. She's Ashley's sister!"

Katie's mother looks at Santana again and raises an eyebrow at that. "Not quite," Santana corrects when she reaches them. She's not sure if she should elaborate her answer or not. She wants to start being braver, but she also doesn't know this women. She doesn't know if she's going to be close minded and decide that Katie can't come over and play with Ashley anymore because of her or Brittany. In the end, she decides to be honest. "Um, I'm actually _dating_ Ashley's sister. But I'm over there enough I might as well be one of their children, so … I can see where she got confused."

"Oh," the older woman responds, eyeing Santana's uniform, but otherwise not betraying her feelings on the matter. "I thought I recognized you."

"Right," Santana deflates a little at the reminder. "The commercial." She sometimes forgets that other people, people she doesn't even know, have seen it. That there are people in town, hell, in the state, that will know she's a lesbian before she even meets them, before she can have that internal debate about whether to risk mentioning it or not. Before she can make the choice herself. "Anyway, um, I'm actually here to pick Ashley up, but I haven't seen her yet. I was just wondering if Katie knew where she was?"

Her mother looks down at Katie to see if she knows. The little girl looks to be thinking long and hard to remember where her friend is. After a moment, a light bulb seems to go off, and she smiles up at the cheerleader. "I think I saw her with some of the other girls, out in the back!"

"Okay," Santana smiles, ruffling Katie's blonde hair. "Thanks, Katie. I owe you some ice cream the next time you sleep over at Ash's, okay? I mean, if it's okay with your mom."

The older woman locks eyes with her and her hesitance lets Santana know that she understands what she's is really asking. "We'll see," she says, immediately looking away from Santana to her daughter. "Come on, Katie. Say goodbye, it's time to go."

"Bye, Santana!" she beams, oblivious to the tension between the two women. Santana weakly waves back, a knot in her stomach over the fact that she might have just cost Ashley a friend. She sighs once they're out of view, making a mental note to get Mrs. Pierce to talk to Katie's mother, and then spins on her heel, heading towards the school yard where she really hopes Ashley is.

As soon as she rounds the corner, she sees Ashley standing with a group of three taller girls, clutching her backpack to her chest like a shield as they look to be reading her something. As she gets closer, she can hear more of their conversation and quickens her pace when she hears Ashley yelling, "I'm not stupid!"

"Hey!" Santana shouts, taking quick strides over to the group of girls. Once she reaches them, she tucks Ashley protectively into her side, rubbing soothing circles on her back and glaring at the other girls. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing," one girl stutters out, recognizing Santana's Cheerios uniform as a sign of superiority.

"Who're you?" another one asks, her eyes widening a bit in fear at the older girl. The third one stays silent.

"Auntie Snix," she sneers, snatching the piece of paper out of the leader's hands. She smirks as they flinch, then turns it around to read it. Her eyes soften when she sees it's a spelling test of Ashley's, one she didn't do very well on. She glances down at the blonde and sees her eyes are misty and her bottom lip is trembling. She remembers that look better than she'd like.

Ashley isn't quite as imaginative and fantastical as her older sister is, but she sometimes struggles with school work the same way Brittany always has. Santana remembers Brittany getting picked on in elementary school and all the bullies she had to fight off to protect her best friend. But Ashley doesn't have a little Santana to help her like Brittany did.

"Look, you little bitches," she snaps, not quite sure how to feel about trying to make eight year olds cry. She makes a mental note to avoid more swearing when she sees how scandalized the girls look. "I'm from a place called Lima Heights Adjacent and … even though you're eight years old, I will not hesitate to ends you if I hear you're picking on my girl Ashley again. Got it?"

She gets three head nods, but that's not good enough for her. She raises an eyebrow, prompting them for more. "Got it."

"Good." She smiles sweetly at the girls. "Now be sure to spread the word to all your other little bratty friends, cause if I hear from Ash that _anyone_ has said anything less than sunshiny to her, I'm gonna hold you three personally responsible. Clear?" The three nod again. "Now get lost before I show you some _real_ Lima Heights hospitality."

The girls rush off, wanting to get away from Santana as quickly as possible. Waiting until they're alone, Santana bends down so she's eye level with Ashley and gives her an encouraging smile, just waiting.

"Thank you," Ashley whispers, not meeting Santana's eyes. She's incredibly thankful for Santana's actions, knowing that they'll actually work, but she's still embarrassed that she had to do that. She likes to seem tough and smart around the older girl, and not like a baby that gets picked on at school and needs someone else to fight her battles. Normally she's pretty good with bullies, but like Brittany, her intelligence is a sore subject and when someone attacks it, she's more likely to cry than fight back.

"Of course," Santana promises, gently tilting the girl's chin up to look at her. "Protecting Pierces is like my job. Just ... don't tell anyone I just threatened a group of eight year olds, okay? That won't be good for my street cred."

Ashley gives her a little smile, glad Santana wasn't making a big deal out of it like her mother probably would. "When my teacher was handing back our spelling tests, she accidently gave mine to someone else, and they saw how bad I did, and told everyone and they all laughed."

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Santana assures her, knowing the girl is embarrassed. "There's nothing wrong with that, Ash. Everyone is good at their own thing. So you're not that great with words, neither is Britt, and Britt is totally awesome, right?" Ashley nods, her eyes lighting up at the comparison. "Besides, I know you've got to be the best artist in your class, am I right? And I bet you can kick all their butts on the soccer field."

"Totally," Ashley agrees proudly. Santana grins at her, cupping the little girl's cheeks to wipe away the tears with the pads of her thumbs.

"If anyone starts picking on you again, I want you to tell me or Britt, okay?" Ashley nods. "Especially if it's about your grades. You're a little genius, just like your sister, so don't let anyone tell you differently."

"Thanks, Tana."

"Anytime, sweetie." With a kiss to the cheek, Santana gently removes the backpack from Ashley's hands, and stands up, tucking it under her arm. "Now come on. We gotta go back to McKinley to pick President Britt up."

Santana holds her hand out and Ashley grips it in her smaller one, and the two start their journey to Santana's car. "Can we get ice cream on the way home?"

Santana laughs. "I don't think your mother would appreciate it if I spoiled both your appetites before dinner. Besides, it's Tuesday, which means Britt gets to pick, which you know means mac and cheese. Don't wanna ruin that, do you?"

"Guess not," Ashley pouts.

"After dinner," Santana promises, squeezing the girl's hand. She knows Brittany will want some for having to stay after school and she figures Ashley deserves it, too.

"You're the best, Tana!"

"Yeah, yeah," Santana mumbles, as if being adored is an inconvenience. "That's what you Pierces keep telling me."


	3. Adjustments

"Why do you like this show so much?" Brittany asks, narrowing her eyes at the screen. "I own three My Little Pony DVDs and even _I_ think it's bad."

Santana laughs, pulling Brittany's body even closer. "That's _why_ I like it, Britt-Britt. It's a train wreck. Like watching Berry and Triangle Brows try to muster up sexual chemistry for Westside Story by boning their boy toys."

"Gross mental picture, San," the blonde replies, scrunching up her face in disgust. Before she can scold her girlfriend further, the sound of tiny footsteps coming in their direction cuts her off, followed by a knock at her door. "What, Ash?"

Not waiting for an actual invitation, Ashley pushes the door open, and enters her sister's room. She's not at all surprised to find Brittany and Santana cuddling on her bed, but at least they have clothes on this time. She glances at the television in the corner, and sees Sweet Valley High playing. "I'm bored. Can I watch, too?"

"Sorry, squirt," Santana answers, making the little girl stop in her tracks. "We're having a Britt-Britt/Santana night. Maybe tomorrow, okay?"

"Oh," Ashley responds quietly, not used to Santana denying her anything. "Okay." She waits a moment, as if Santana will tell her she was just kidding. When they just go back to watching their show, she pouts and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

 

"Is Santana here yet?"

Ashley looks up from her math book and shakes her head. "Tana's coming over?"

"Yeah," Brittany throws over her shoulder as she heads into the living room to look for her cell phone. "We're going to-"

She's cut off by the front door opening and Santana's voice calling into the house. "You're not answering your phone!"

"I know, I lost it again," she pouts, giving her girlfriend a kiss when she enters the room.

"I told you to keep it in your pocket, babe," Santana laughs, eyeing the room quickly to see if she can spot it. Sometimes Brittany can miss really obvious things.

Brittany huffs, frustrated at her failed search. "I know, but my Cheerios uniform doesn't have pockets, and I don't wear a bra to school anymore, so I can't keep it in there like you do."

"Me gusta," the brunette smirks, pulling at Brittany's arms to get her to stand still. She tugs Brittany flush against her body. "Let's just go and we'll look for it when we come back."

"Where are you going?" Ashley asks, leaning against the doorway, her hands behind her back. The girls pull apart to look over at the little girl.

"Getting some ice cream," Santana answers. "It's kind of a double date thing, with Mercedes and Sam, though Mercedes doesn't know that, so …"

Ashley might not be the smartest eight year old, but she gets it. "Okay," she mumbles, disappointed. "Um, well, here's your phone, Britty. You left it in the kitchen when you came home from school."

"Oh, thanks, Ash," the taller blonde cheers, completely missing how disappointed her sister is. She grabs the phone from her outstretched hand and then pulls Santana towards the door. "Let's go, San. If Mercedes gets there before we do, she's not gonna stay with Sam."

"Coming, darling," Santana laughs, letting herself be pulled along. She throws a distracted wave in Ashley's direction before they disappear out the door, with no promises of bringing her back a cone.

 

"We're leaving now," Brittany informs her mother, peaking into the kitchen where the woman is cleaning up from dinner. "The movie should be done by ten, though."

"Can you please take your sister with you?"

Brittany makes a face. "But _mom_ , we haven't had a date night all week."

"And your father and I haven't had a date night in years," her mother counters, raising a challenging eyebrow at her eldest daughter.

Brittany wants to argue some more, but she's afraid her mother might tell her what they have planned for their own date night, and she really doesn't want to hear that. "Fine, but we're not calling to warn you before we come home, so you can't do anything gross." With that, she twirls around to meet Santana at the front door.

"Ready?"

"Mom says we have to take Ash with us." She doesn't give Santana a chance to react before she calls up to her sister. "Ash! Get down here, you're coming to the movies with us!"

Ashley perks up, and quickly scrambles to get ready before she runs downstairs to meet the older girls. She beams at them, thrilled at the invitation. "Are we seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks?"

"I guess we are now," Santana mumbles. That was definitely _not_ what they were planning on seeing. Brittany elbows her to keep quiet and they head out of the door.

They make it to the theater in record time, and get lucky that there's a showing of the Chipmunks movie at the same time as the movie they had originally planned on seeing. Santana scans the board quickly to see if there's any other movie that would be appropriate for Ashley to see that wasn't about talking animals, but there isn't. Sighing, she hands the vendor enough money for three tickets and they head inside. They get Ashley some snacks, and enter their theater to find it's only about a quarter full, which isn't surprising for a Thursday night showing of a kid's movie in Lima.

Santana motions for Brittany to stay put while she takes Ashley's hand and walks her down a couple of steps to the third row of seats from the top. "You sit here, okay? And don't move at all. If you have to go to the bathroom, come get one of us to take you, we'll be just back there."

"Wait," Ashley speaks, confused at the instructions. She's gone to the movies with Brittany and Santana tons of times, and they've always sat together. She looks back up at Brittany, who's tapping her foot impatiently. She brings her eyes back to Santana, suddenly feeling embarrassed for some reason. "I don't get to sit with you guys?"

"It's just, this was supposed to be a date, you know?" Santana quickly explains, not picking up on Ashley's hurt feelings. "But your mom asked us to take you out of her hair for a couple hours and I really don't wanna watch Alvin and the Chipmunks. So, you watch the movie here, and Britts and I can do our thing back there, okay?"

"San, come on!" Instead of waiting for Ashley's answer, Santana just ruffles her hair before quickly making her way back to Brittany, pushing her into the back row of seats with a laugh. Ashley watches them, feeling more disappointed than she thinks she's ever felt, and slumps into the chair Santana told her to sit in. She tosses her candy to ground, suddenly not very hungry at all.

 

When Santana comes over that weekend, she doesn't even greet her at all. She just comes in the door like she always does, and heads straight for the stairs. Ashley listens from the living room and rolls her eyes when she hears the girl calling for her sister. She doesn't bother telling her that Brittany isn't home, just lets her figure it out on her own.

It takes a couple of minutes for her to make her way back downstairs and wander into the living room when she notices Ashley is in there watching TV and doing homework. "Hey, squirt. Where's Britt?"

"Not home," Ashley mumbles, not in the mood to talk to her.

Santana twirls her car keys on her finger, glancing into the kitchen as if her girlfriend might be in there. "Where's she at?"

Ashley sighs when she realizes she's not gonna be able to ignore her. "Mom was supposed to pick up Aunt Carol from the airport, but she's not feeling well, so she's taking a nap and Britt went to do it. She left like an hour ago."

"Okay," Santana responds, wondering for a moment why Brittany didn't text her, before remembering the girl probably lost her cell again. She shrugs and moves into the room, dropping down on the couch beside the little girl. "Well, I'll just chill with you until she gets back then." Ashley scoffs but doesn't say anything else. After a few minutes of silence, Santana speaks up again, nodding towards the notebook in the girl's lap. "Whatcha doing?"

"None of your business," Ashley snaps. Santana's eyes widen at the words, surprised by the hostility coming from the normally friendly little girl.

"Whoa," she responds in surprise, leaning away a bit at the force of the words. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

"Doesn't seem like nothing." Ashley sighs and mumbles something that Santana doesn't catch. "Huh?"

"I said I'm mad at you," she speaks again, this time looking up and attempting to glare at the other girl. But she's a Pierce, so it just comes out looking too adorable to be intimidating.

Santana tries not to smile adoringly at her. "Why? What did I do to you?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you mad?"

"That's _why_ I'm mad!" she exclaims, slapping a tiny fist on her open notebook. Santana flinches at the noise, and frowns, realizing that Ashley really is upset. She waits for a moment while the blonde breathes heavily, trying to calm down. "Ever since you and Britty started dating, you've been ignoring me."

Santana is pretty sure that's not true. "What? No, I haven't."

"You have," Ashley insists. "Maybe not the whole time you've been dating, but lately whenever you come over, you just hang out with Britt."

"Ash…"

"I know you've always come over for Britt," Ashley continues, trying to avoid looking at Santana. "But you used to come hang out with me for a bit, too. You guys would watch movies with me, or let me watch with you. You'd take me to get ice cream, or to the park or help me with my homework." Santana watches as Ashley wipes her eyes with her sleeve and her heart breaks. "Now you guys watch things in her room and don't let me come in. And I can't get ice cream with you because now it's a double date with stupid people from your stupid glee club! And when you _finally_ let me do something with you, it was because mom made you take me, and you made me sit by myself so you guys could suck face in the back! It's not _fair_!"

Santana is taken aback by the outburst, but she can't deny that Ashley is right. She thinks over the past couple of weeks, remembering all the times her and Brittany have denied or ditched Ashley, and she feels horrible. She remembers the movies just a couple days ago, and she really can't believe she made her sit by herself.

Ashley _is_ right. Before they were out, she always used to hang out with Ashley, and she and Brittany were always including her in things. But ever since they came out, they've been so wrapped up in being able to be together that they've been leaving her out. It wasn't intentional at all, but seeing that hurt look on Ashley's little face and her watery eyes, that didn't really seem to matter at all.

"Oh, sweetie," she whispers, trying to pull the smaller girl into her arms. The blonde resists at first, but eventually gives in, and lets herself be embraced. She expects Ashley to start crying, but she holds herself together, just letting a few sniffles out. "Ash, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, you're totally right."

"I know Britt is your girlfriend now, and not just your best friend," she continues, her voice much calmer than it was a moment ago. "But … you're still _my_ best friend and it makes me sad that you don't like me anymore."

Santana feels her stomach drop to her feet. She swallows passed the lump in her throat to speak, shaking her head frantically. "Ash, no, that's not it at all. Of course I still like you, I _love_ you. You're one of my favorite people in the world, remember? I love spending time with you, you know that. It's just, this is all new, you know? Britts and I aren't used to being able to be girlfriends in front of other people yet. We spent so long hiding it, and trying to act like we were just best friends, we're kind of making up for lost time now, I guess." Santana runs her fingers through Ashley's hair soothingly, hoping to comfort the girl. "But that's no excuse. Things are different now, and we obviously still have to figure out how to adjust properly, but it doesn't change the way I feel about you, okay, kiddo? I still love you very much, and I'm really sorry that I haven't been showing you that."

"It's okay," Ashley mumbles out, trying to play it off now. She's glad she finally said something, but now that Santana is reassuring her, she feels kind of silly. "I was being stupid."

"Hey," Santana immediately chastises, urging the blonde to look up at her. She gently cups the little girl's cheeks and speaks softly to her. "You know I don't like you using that word. You were not being stupid and it's not okay. I haven't been spending enough time with you, you're right. I'm not sure how yet, but I'll figure it out, okay, I will. I'll figure out how to be Brittany's girlfriend and your best friend, I promise."

Ashley nods, because Santana never breaks her promises, and scrunches her face as she receives a kiss on her forehead. She buries herself deeper into Santana's arms and just enjoys her company for a change. Santana tightens her hold and promises herself to do better. She can't stand when one of her girls is upset, and she refuses to be the cause of it ever again.

 

"Are you sure you'll be okay for the day, B?" Santana asks for what feels like the hundredth time. "You know you can come with us."

Brittany smiles and playfully rolls her eyes at her girlfriend. "I'll be fine, San. Quinn and Mercedes are coming over to take me shopping. Besides, I think we both know Ashley needs a little Santana time to herself."

When Santana had told Brittany everything her sister had been feeling when she got home that night, the blonde had felt just as guilty as Santana did. Sure, she had still been spending time with the girl since they lived together and she wasn't with Santana at all hours of the day, but she had still been monopolizing her time and she felt horrible for that. She knew how much Ashley loved Santana, and she'd never purposely keep Santana from her.

"I just feel like I'm being a bad girlfriend by ditching you," Santana pouts, slipping her arms around Brittany's waist and burying her face in the crook of her neck. Brittany laughs and wraps her arm loosely around the shorter girl's shoulders.

"You're not ditching me," Brittany promises, her lips tingling the shell of Santana's ear. "You're spending the day with my little sister, who adores you. That actually makes you like the best girlfriend ever, I'm pretty sure."

"Really?" the brunette mumbles.

"Really," she repeats, and pulls back to look at the other girl. "Santana, I _love_ how much you love Ashley and how good you are with her. It makes me feel all warm and gooey inside."

Santana beams, pretty sure she knows why. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Brittany whispers, leaning forward to kiss Santana softly. Just as she does, Ashley comes barreling down the stairs, dressed and ready for her day with Santana, but stops in her tracks when she sees them kissing.

"Oh, sorry," she mumbles, looking everywhere but at them. Normally she'd just tease them and tell them to stop being gross, but with everything recently, it feels weird. And she's kind of suddenly worried that Santana is about to tell her that she has plans with Brittany now instead. "Um, are we still going?"

Santana's heart clutches at her uncertainty and she looks at Brittany, only to see that the blonde is obviously feeling the same. She quickly nods her head, and disengages from Brittany's hold. "Hells yes, we are. Come on, munchkin, say goodbye to Britty, cause I may kidnap you and never bring you back again!"

"Tana!" Ashley squeals when the older girl comes over and scoops her up in her arms. She kicks widely as she's walked to the door, but manages to stop and hug her sister on their way by. "Bye, Britty!"

"Have fun!" Brittany calls out, watching her girls leave with a smile.


	4. Little Miss Fix It

"Britty?" Ashley calls out to her sister as she hovers at the entryway to the living room. She heard her sister come home awhile ago, but was surprised she hadn't seen her yet. If she's home before the older girl, she usually sees her and Santana stumbling past her door on their way to Brittany's bedroom, but after waiting, she still hadn't seen her sister. She eventually ventured downstairs and risked catching the girls making out on the couch or something even worse, to see what was going on. They weren't sucking face, though. Actually, Santana wasn't even there, which was even weirder.

"Hey, Ash," Brittany mumbles half heartedly, not even bothering to look up at her sister. She's curled up on the sofa with her face half buried in a pillow, not even watching the muted television in front of her.

Ashley might be little, but she's good with people like her sister is, and it seems obvious to her that Brittany is sad about something. Ashley shuffles into the room and kneels down on the floor in front of her sister, leaning forward against the couch cushions so their faces are only a couple inches apart. "What's wrong, Britty?"

Brittany doesn't even flinch at the close proximity. "I'm a sad panda."

"How come?"

Even though she _does_ know why, Brittany just shrugs her shoulders, not sure if she wants to talk about it with an eight year old. She doesn't really have anyone else to talk to, but she's not sure Ashley will understand.

"Where's Tana? She always cheers you up."

"She has lots of homework to do." Then Brittany's stomach feels funny when she thinks about this afternoon and she shakes her head at her sister's suggestion. "And she's why I'm sad."

"Oh." It seems like it's been such a long time since Santana has made Brittany sad that Ashley isn't sure what to do. The couple has had a few arguments since getting together, but that would usually just result in Brittany pouting or being grumpy before they made up a few hours later. She hasn't been really sad in a while, and Ashley hates seeing her sister sad.

"Yeah."

Ashley reaches up and holds Brittany's hand with her smaller one. "What happened?"

"I don't think I want to talk about it," the older blonde sighs. She loves her sister for trying, but she'd rather sit and wallow for a bit. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," the little girl assures her, even if she is disappointed that she can't cheer her sister up. "I'm sorry you're sad, Britty."

Brittany smiles weakly at the girl and squeezes her hand. "Thanks, Ash."

 

Santana lets out a frustrated sigh when she hears the banging on her front door. She was just getting into the groove of her math homework after putting it off for days, and since nobody else is home yet, she has to answer it. She tosses her pencil aside and makes her way downstairs, pulling the door open with a groan. She doesn't know who she was expecting on the other side, but she's pretty sure an angry looking Ashley Pierce was not on the list.

"Ash? What are you…" She leans over Ashley to get a better look at the road, but doesn't see either of the Pierce vehicles. "How did you get here?"

"I rode my bike," she answers with what Santana thinks is supposed to be a scowl. She glances back at her yard and notices the blonde's bike lying sideways on her lawn.

Santana raises an eyebrow. "Did you ride over here by yourself? You know you're not supposed to go passed the Williams house without me or Britt."

"Well, Britty is too busy being sad," she starts, and the older girl can hear the accusation in her voice clearly. "And you weren't there."

"Why is Brittany sad?"

"Because of you!" Ashley exclaims, stomping her foot for effect.

Santana is confused. She and Brittany didn't get into a fight and she can't think of any other way she could have upset her girlfriend. Brittany hadn't said anything to her after glee practice when she told her that she couldn't hang out tonight because she had a bunch of homework to finish. "What did _I_ do?"

"I don't know, but you did something and you have to fix it," the tiny blonde tells her, leaving no room for argument. She doesn't like being mad at Santana, and it doesn't happen very often, but she won't let her be mean to Brittany.

"If you don't know _what_ I did, how do you even know it's something _I_ did?" Not that it really matters, because if Brittany is sad, she wants to make her feel better, regardless of the reason.

"She told me she was sad because of you," Ashley answers, moving to try to tug Santana out of the house. "Come on, I don't like it when Britty is sad, we have to make her feel better."

"Okay, okay, just let me grab my keys." Santana has no idea what's going on, but she knows better than to argue with the youngest Pierce and she wants to cheer her girl up, so she gets her keys and lets herself be pulled out the door, homework forgotten. "I'll throw your bike in the back and we'll drive over."

 

Ashley doesn't even bother getting her bike out of the back of Santana's car, and instead slams her door closed and stands at the front of her house, tapping her foot impatiently as she wants for the older girl to join her. Santana rolls her eyes at the girl's dramatics, slipping out of her car and making her way towards the Pierce's front door, Ashley leading the way.

"Britty!" the little girl calls as they enter the house. She can see the television is still on from there, so she assumes her sister is still where she left her. "Come on, she's in the living room."

Santana follows the girl silently, still kind of skeptical that Brittany is really upset and this wasn't just Ashley's way of getting her to come over instead of finally finishing her homework. When they get to the living room and she sees Brittany curled up on the couch and staring at the quiet television, she's knows Ashley was telling the truth.

"Britt Britt?" she asks softly, moving into the room and leaving Ashley standing at the door. The older blonde immediately looks up at the voice, clearly surprised by her presence.

"San?"

"Hey, Britts," she greets, sitting down on the edge of the couch near her girlfriend's midsection. She places a hand on her back and rubs gently. "What's going on? Ash said I made you sad?"

Brittany's eyes drift to Ashley in the doorway, and her sister just nods towards Santana, encouraging her to tell her what's wrong. She looks back up at the brunette and shakes her head. "No, I said that I was sad because of you, not that you made me sad."

Santana's face scrunches in that adorable way Brittany loves as she tries to follow the blonde's words. "So you're not mad at me?"

"No, _you're_ mad at _me_ ," Brittany clarifies. "And it makes me sad when you're mad at me."

"What?" Santana's hand moves up to rest on the blonde's cheek, and she tries to direct her eyes to meet her's. "Sweetie, I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?"

"No," she assures her. "What made you think that?"

Brittany turns around so she's lying on her back and can get a better look at her girlfriend. "You didn't like my dance today. You said we should be embarrassed."

"Your dance?" It takes a moment for Santana to realize what she's talking about but then it all makes sense. "Oh, no, Britts, that was about Schuester and his ignorance. _He_ offended me, not you."

"But I was part of it," Brittany protests with a pout. "I was part of something that made you mad, so that means you're mad at me."

"But I'm not," she tries to assure her again. She brushes her thumb over Brittany's pout as if it will make it disappear. "I wasn't even really mad at Mr. Schue, I was just annoyed. And it wasn't your fault, you don't know any better."

"But I _should_ ," the blond argues, crossing her arms with a huff. She's silent for a moment and averts her eyes. "And I guess I kind of did. But I was just excited that someone finally wanted me to dance with them again that I did it anyway."

That catches Santana's attention. "Wait, what … What do you mean?"

Brittany shrugs. "It's nothing."

" _Britts_."

"It's just …" Brittany struggles with what she wants to say. She's been feeling this way for a while now, but hasn't been able to figure out the best way to bring it up. She thinks maybe that's the real reason she's sad. "I feel like nobody includes me in anything anymore and I don't know why. I guess I don't really care that much about the other guys, but it's kinda sucky when it's you."

"Britt Britt," Santana starts gently, though a bit taken aback by her girlfriend's words. "What are you talking about? What have I left you out of?"

Brittany bites her lip, debating. She eventually pushes herself up so she's sitting across from Santana, just now noticing that Ashley is still standing in the doorway. Brittany thinks she's half being nosy, half being protective. She just thinks it's sweet. She catches her eye and Ashley nods again, urging her on.

"It's probably just in my head, you know how I get things mixed up sometimes," Brittany tries to stall for a moment before her shoulders slump when Santana gives her a pointed look. "Okay, it's just like, I feel like lately, you've been hanging out with everyone else a lot more. And I like that you're nicer to the glee club now, and they're starting to see how awesome I always knew you were, and you're friends with them and everything, but I'm not used to sharing you. And it seems like ever since you started doing things with them more, you do things with them _instead_ of with me."

"Okay," Santana acknowledges, thinking she might see where Brittany is coming from, but she's not sure. She pulls Brittany's hand to hold in her own to let her know that she's following her. "Can you give me a for instance?"

"Just today, your performance with Mr. Martinez," Brittany supplies. "I could have done this week's assignment with you, but you did it with him instead. You said you sang with him because you're both hot, but am I not hot enough then?"

"No, no, Britts, no, of course you are," Santana immediately assures her, shifting closer to her girlfriend on the couch. "Baby, you know I think you're the hottest piece of action in this shithole town." She immediately shoots Ashley a look that tells her to ignore that before continuing. "I just sang with him because I knew it would annoy Mr. Schue. Of course I would've rather sang it with you. Nobody is hotter together than us."

"Then how come we haven't sang together all year?" Brittany challenges. It's not that she doesn't believe Santana, but it's kind of been bugging her. Turns out, there's a lot more things making Brittany sad than she thought. "Last year when I wanted to sing a duet with you, you said no because we didn't kiss because you were in love with me. But you're in love with me now, right? And everyone knows, but you'd still rather sing with Mercedes or Rachel or Mr. Martinez. And you even sang with that 80s movie villain Warbler guy on your underboob mission, which you didn't even tell me about, which sucks the most because you know how much I love your boobs."

Santana thinks she would have laughed if she didn't feel so crappy. "Britts, I-"

"And nobody else wants to sing with me either," the blonde continues. "Or even dance. I just sit in the back of glee club and watch everyone else sing with each other or to each other and I just feel like everyone forgets I'm even there. Nobody's even noticed that I've barely said anything since Christmas break. So when Mr. Schuester asked me to be part of his song, I said yes, even though I knew it probably wasn't good. It was the first time anyone's asked me to perform with them in a really long time and I missed it. I'm really sorry if I made you feel bad. "

"Sweetie, no, you didn't." Santana already feels horrible enough for not noticing all of this until now, she doesn't need _Brittany_ apologizing to _her_ for it. "You kicked that performance square in the balls, okay? Schuester's only good decision this year has been to ask you to dance with him. And I … God, I'm so bad at this."

That catches Brittany's attention, because she doesn't think there's anything Santana's not awesome at. "At what?"

"At being in a relationship, being a girlfriend," Santana answers, slumping her shoulders and falling against the back of the couch in defeat. She sees Brittany is about to protest and shakes her head. "No, I am. First I totally ignore Ashley and now I'm ignoring you? I suck."

"You don't suck," Brittany promises, untangling her legs so she can shift her body to lean against the other girl. "You're the best girlfriend I've ever had."

Santana cracks a smile and responses as expected. "I'm the only one you've ever had."

"And you're the only one I'm ever gonna have," Brittany responds confidently, and it makes Santana want to wrap the girl up and never let her go. "I'm not mad at you either, San. I love you, and I just miss you is all."

"You shouldn't _have_ to miss me, Britt," the other girl sighs, hating that this has somehow turned into Brittany cheering her up. "I'm your girlfriend, I shouldn't be anywhere else long enough for you to miss me."

"Maybe I'm just being clingy."

Santana's scoffs at the idea that Brittany could ever be clingy, since that would imply it her attention was unwanted. "You're not. I have been spending a lot of time with other people, time that didn't include you, when it could have. You're right. I just, I have to work on balancing it out, and make sure you're not being excluded, because that's the last thing I want, babe."

"I don't want you to feel like you have to hang out with me, San," Brittany frowns.

"Of course I don't feel like that," she promises, pulling the blonde into her side to wrap her arms around her. "I love you and miss you, too. Yeah, it's kind of cool to have other people genuinely want to hang out with me, but I don't like being with any one of them as much as I like being with you."

"It's just like with me," Ashley provides, speaking for the first time since coming into the living room. The couple turns towards her and watch as she makes her way over to join them on the couch, making herself comfortable on Santana's other side. "You said you got caught up in your guys's relationship cause it was new and stuff, but you didn't mean to and you still loved me. You just had to learn to be better at being both, right?"

Santana grins down at the little girl on her side and throws an arm around her shoulder to join the hug. "That's exactly right, munchkin. And I got much better at it, didn't I?"

"She did," Ashley answers, looking at her sister as if she's reassuring her even though Brittany obviously already knew. And the comparison did make her feel better. She knew better than anyone that Santana hadn't meant to neglect Ashley, and she hadn't either, and that it didn't mean Santana loved her sister any less. Santana just has some trouble adapting to new situations, it seems. She can understand that. "She got lots better!"

Santana grins at her and gives her a squeeze before looking back towards her girlfriend, glad to see she looks more relaxed. "I'm so sorry for making you sad. I'm just not used to having real friends other than you, but I'll work on it, B, I promise. There's _nobody_ I'd rather do anything with than you."

"Me, too."

Ashley watches as the girls share a soft kiss, mindful of her sitting right there. Once they pull apart, all smiles, she cheers, happy with her work. "You're not sad anymore, right, Britty? I helped fix it?"

"You did," Brittany answers with a smile, and Santana pulls the little girl onto her lap so Brittany can hug her. "Thanks, Ash."

"Yes, thank you," Santana repeats, squeezing the little girl on her lap as well. She knows that if Ashley hadn't brought her over, Brittany probably would've kept hiding how she felt, and it would have only gotten worse, and she'd hate herself for hurting the girl any more than she already had. "I want you to keep telling me if I'm not treating Britt right, okay? Make sure you keep me in line."

"Okay!" she agrees easily, loving the attention. "But I get to be the best man at your wedding, then."

Santana laughs. "I think you mean maid of honor."

"Yeah, that," she corrects with a grin. "I get to be that, okay?"

Santana and Brittany share a smile at the thought. "You got it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is obviously set during The Spanish Teacher, and was just in reference to muted, ignored S3 Brittany, in case anyone has forgotten when that was one of our biggest complaints.


	5. Unhappy Birthday

"So, what exactly is on the agenda for this thing?" Santana asks, looking over the printed out surprise birthday party invitation in her hand. Her and Brittany had just made it quickly on Brittany's laptop, and emailed the invitations to the parents of Ashley's friends from school. Now they're sitting at the kitchen table looking over some homework while Mrs. Pierce makes dinner.

"We're renting a small bounce castle for the backyard," Mrs. Pierce starts, glancing over at the girls and seeing Brittany immediately perk up. " _For the kids_." Brittany pouts, but doesn't say anything. She's confident she'll be able to sneak some time on it with Santana. "And we'll have some games, cake, presents, the usual."

"No sleepover?" Santana questions with a smirk, remembering the disaster that was Ashley's last birthday party, in no small part thanks to her.

Mrs. Pierce glares at her. "Not unless you want to be banned from this house for … Wait, what are you even doing here?"

Santana laughs, knowing the women is just teasing her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll be on my best behavior this year, I promise. I've already cost Ashley enough friends."

"Honey," Brittany whines, nudging the girl beside her when she suddenly turns serious and melancholy. "Stop that. I told you that wasn't your fault." Seeing her mother's questioning look, Brittany explains, "Katie."

"Ah," the older woman nods. Santana had told her about that encounter that night, hoping she could straighten it out with the girl's mother, but she hadn't had any luck. "Brittany's right, sweetie. It's not your fault Katie's mother is so narrow minded that she'd keep her daughter from her friend over something like that."

Santana's grip on her pen tightens in anger and frustration, but she nods. "I know. I know you're right, but I still feel like crap every time Ashley wonders why Katie doesn't come over to play anymore."

Mrs. Pierce looks on in sympathy, while her daughter rubs Santana's back. "Well, she got an invitation to the party, so hopefully her mother will loosen long enough to let her come. We'll just have to wait and see."

"So how are we gonna surprise her?" Brittany asks after a moment, jumping to change the subject.

"Do you think you two could keep her out of the house until it's time?"

Santana glances down at the invitation again. "Everyone's supposed to be here at by 12:30? We could probably take her to a late birthday breakfast? We'll bring her back by one, to give everyone time to get here?"

"Sounds good," Mrs. Pierce agrees, giving the girls a warm smile. She really appreciates how good both of the girls are with her youngest daughter. "Thanks, girls."

 

"Do you just want me to sign your name for you or do you wanna do it yourself?"

Santana glances up from her iPod. "Sign what?"

"Ashley's birthday card," the blonde answers, holding up the card in question so her girlfriend can see. "We still need to wrap her present, but I always forget to sign cards, so I'm doing it now while I remember. It's totally cute, it's got a picture of a cat that looks like Lord Tubbington on it." All of her cards have pictures of cats that look like Lord Tubbington on them. Santana has at least two dozen cat cards in her room somewhere.

"Oh," the other girl responds, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion still. "We're just giving her the one card for both our presents?"

Now it's Brittany's turn to be confused. She spins around in her desk chair to face Santana, who's sitting on her bed and going through her iPod, looking for a good song to sing in glee this week. "Wait, you got her a present, too?"

"Uh, yeah," Santana laughs. "That _is_ the expected social protocol."

"I just thought you were gonna put your name on my gift, and we'd say it was from both of us." Brittany doesn't really know why she thought that though, since Santana has always gotten Ashley a separate gift for her birthday.

Santana smiles at the thought. "Like a couples gift?"

Brittany smiles back. "Yeah, I guess. Mom and Dad always give birthday and Christmas presents together. I guess I just assumed ..."

"I love the sound of that," Santana answers truthfully, a lifetime of birthdays and Christmases flashing through her mind. She shuffles down the bed to be closer to her girlfriend. "But then Ash only gets one present. I don't think she'd like that."

"That's true," Brittany concedes, imagining the pout her sister would assault them with if they presented her with just one gift instead of the normal two. "Okay, why don't we just do what you said then? We'll give her both gifts together, from both of us, with one card?"

"Sure," she agrees, holding out her hand. "Gimme the card, and I'll sign it now."

Brittany starts handing it over before she thinks of something, and pulls it back again. "Wait, what did you get her? I can't have my name attached to your gift if you got her something lame like socks or books."

Santana rolls her eyes and laughs, snatching the card out of Brittany's hand. "When have I ever gotten Ash anything lame? You know she always likes my presents best."

"Just cause they're from you," the blonde counters, handing the pen over, too. "You could get her a rock and she'd think it was the best thing ever."

"Stop being jealous," Santana teases, knowing Brittany doesn't really mind that Ashley might favor her. Brittany's assured her lots of times that she doesn't care because she thinks Santana is the most awesome too, so she can't blame her sister. "It's not a good look on you."

"See, now I know you're not being serious," Brittany responds, a smile starting to form on her lips. "Because you think anything looks good on me."

Santana grins as she quickly signs the card, making a mental note to write something more in it later. "It does." She tosses it aside and quickly reaches forward to grab Brittany's hands, tugging her towards her on the bed. The blonde giggles but lets herself fall on top of Santana, bracing herself with her hands. "Especially me."

"But _I'm_ the one that's on _you_ ," she points out seriously, causing Santana to playfully roll her eyes again. The brunette waits a moment before quickly rolling them over so that she's on top.

"Better?"

"I don't know." Brittany's smirk grows as she thinks of a response, knowing it'll annoy her girlfriend. "Do you even know what to do up there? It's been so long since you've been a top …"

"Ugh, Britt!" Santana groans, her status as a bottom somewhat of a sore subject for her. Brittany just giggles beneath her, sending her a challenging look, knowing Santana never backs down from a challenge. "Okay, fine, you wanna play like that? Then you better get ready, baby, cause I'm gonna show you just how knowledgeable I am about being on top."

Brittany's last coherent thought as Santana's lips attack her neck, is that her girlfriend is super easy to get into bed.

 

"You almost done, kiddo?"

Ashley looks up from her plate to Santana, who's sitting across from her in booth at Breadstix. "Can I get some dessert?"

"There's no dessert with breakfast," Santana answers, and sees Brittany's pout out of the corner of her eye. "Despite Britt's constant protests on the matter."

"It feels inferior to lunch and dinner and I think that's sad."

Ashley rolls her eyes as Santana stares adoringly at her sister. "But it's basically lunch time anyways," she points out, knowing it's after noon already.

"Time is irrelevant," the brunette tells her with a flick of the wrist, snapping her attention from one blonde back to the other. "You had plenty of sugar already, with the disgusting amount of syrup you put on those waffles."

"But it's my _birthdayyyy_ ," Ashley whines, throwing in the pout she knows Santana can't resist.

Seeing that her girlfriend is already getting ready to succumb to the Pierce pout, Brittany jumps in. "And Mom made you a birthday cake. So you'll get lots of junk food later."

"Please, Tana?" Ashley begs, ignoring her sister's words. Santana glances from the pout down to her phone, seeing they still have more than a half hour to kill before they can go back to the house. She imagines Ashley and her little friends will burn off a lot of energy at the party, so it probably wouldn't ruin her appetite.

"Ugh, fine," Santana gives in, putting on a show of being bested. Ashley beams at her, and starts to reach for the dessert menu that's sitting on the table, before Santana snatches it out of her grasp. "But not from here. We'll go get ice cream."

Ashley's eyes light up. "Even better!" She jumps out of the booth and waits for the older girls to do the same, before grabbing their hands and dragging them towards the door, stopping just long enough for Santana to throw some cash on the table to pay their bill.

The girls pile into Santana's car and head over to the local ice cream shop. Santana barely gets her car into a parking spot before Ashley is out of the car and running into the store. Knowing she's fine in there by herself, since they're there so often the entire staff knows them by name, the other girls aren't in a huge rush to get inside.

"You getting anything, B?" Santana asks as Brittany rounds the car to meet her on the sidewalk. She holds out her hand for her girlfriend to take and intertwines their fingers.

Brittany just nods and squeezes Santana's hand as they walk towards the front door. She loves any moment where her and Santana get to be themselves in public, and just likes to soak it up in all of its awesomeness. Her girlfriend has come such a long way in just a couple of months. The girl who was once afraid to see give her a hug in the school hallways, now uses every opportunity to hold her hand or give her a kiss. Santana squeezes back as she pulls the door open, holding it so Brittany can go in first. Once inside, they find Ashley already placing her order with the familiar server behind the counter.

"We have half an hour to kill, I might as well get something too," Santana muses, eying the choices. She ends up getting the cookies and cream like Brittany does, and the three find an empty table to sit at.

"What do you say to Santana for treating you to breakfast and dessert?"

Ashley quickly swallows her mouthful and smiles at Santana. "Thank you, Tana!"

"You're welcome, sweetie," she replies, reaching over to ruffle the girl's hair. Ashley swats at her hand, but otherwise doesn't protest. "So what do you think you'll get for your birthday?"

"I gave Mom a list a couple weeks ago," she shares between licks at her cone. "I don't remember everything I put on it anymore."

Santana laughs. "At least you'll be surprised then."

Twenty minutes later, the girls are finishing up their cones, and Santana checks the time on her phone for what feels like the hundredth time. The shorter blonde notices and smirks at her. "Got somewhere to be?"

"No," Santana quickly answers. They've managed to go this long without Ashley finding out, which is a miracle considering Brittany's inability to keep a secret, and she's not gonna blow it so close to show time. Ashley gives her what she thinks is a knowing look and looks like she wants to stay something else, but decides against it.

"So, Ash," Brittany interrupts again, veering the conversation to a safer topic. "Bet you can't guess what I got you!"

As Ashley starts playing along and trying to guess what her present is, Santana gets a text from Mrs. Pierce.

_You girls might as well come back now._

Santana raises an eyebrow at the message, since it's still earlier than the time they agreed on, and types back.

_You guys are ready? Did Katie come?_

_She didn't come. Nobody came._

Santana's stomach drops to her feet. "What?" Brittany and Ashley throw her matching confused looks, and she waves them off. "Sorry, uh, Puck just texted me something inappropriate." The girls go back to their guessing game and Santana immediately texts Mrs. Pierce back.

_What? Nobody showed up?_

Santana watches on as Ashley laughs in delight at something her sister says to her, and her heart breaks for the little girl. She knows she's had some trouble with girls at her school this year, and then there's the whole Katie thing, but she didn't think it was this bad. Her phone vibrates in her hand, and she glances back down.

_Nope, I'll explain later. I'm just so glad Ash doesn't know about it, so she won't be crushed. You girls come home and we'll open presents and eat cake and make the best of the day._

_We're on our way._

"Come on," Santana interrupts, pocketing her phone and standing up. "Let's head home."

Brittany immediately senses Santana's mood and glances at her sister. "Hey, can you throw this stuff out for us?" The tiny blonde doesn't question her sister, and gathers up their trash to dispose of. Once her sister is out of earshot, Brittany stands up to join Santana, gently shaking her elbow to get her attention. "What's going on?"

Santana tears her eyes away from Ashley to look at her girlfriend. "Your mom said nobody showed up."

" _What_?"

"Nobody showed up to the party, Britts," Santana repeats quietly, the sadness in her voice painfully obvious. Brittany's eyes move to watch her sister happily skipping over towards the trash and dumping everything inside.

"Oh no." Brittany tries to think of anything sadder, but can't.

Santana nods in agreement, rubbing a hand up and down Brittany's back. "Tell me about it. But at least it was supposed to be a surprise, so we can just pretend that it was only supposed to be us there, alright? She doesn't have to know and be sad, too. You gotta cheer up, B, or Ash will know something's wrong. Come on."

"Okay," Brittany mumbles, knowing Santana is right. She shakes her head and plasters on a smile as Ashley makes her way back over to them.

 

The girls return to the Pierce house to much fanfare in the form of Mr. and Mrs. Pierce overcompensating for the lack of other guests and fawning all over Ashley the second she walks into the house. All the party decorations that they had set up are taken down, and anything else party related is put away, in the hopes that Ashley will never be the wiser.

Ashley's pretty quiet for most of the afternoon, apart from the excitement of opening her presents, and the squealing she does when she sees the Taylor Swift concert tickets that Santana (and Brittany) got her. Despite the situation, Santana can't help but gloat to Brittany that her present was Ashley's favorite yet again. Ashley even declines the cake offered to her, and instead goes out to jump around by herself on the castle, which they weren't able to get rid of until their rented time is finished.

"This is so sad," Brittany says from the kitchen table, where Santana is sitting beside and her mother is across from her. Her father is in the backyard grilling up dinner. "How could nobody come?"

"Well," Mrs. Pierce starts, but hesitates a bit as her eyes shift over to Santana. The brunette is watching Ashley jump up and down in the backyard with an unreadable expression on her face. She looks up, however, when she notices the older woman pause. Mrs. Pierce debates whether to share her news, knowing Santana will just get down on herself more than she already has.

"Well what?"

Mrs. Pierce sighs. "Well, while you guys were at breakfast, a little after the kids were supposed to get here, I got a call from one of their parents. Apparently Katie's mother is head of the PTA, and brought up the party at their last meeting, and mentioned some of her… concerns, and encouraged the other parents not to let their kids come. The other parents took it as some kind of warning, like if they let them come, they'd be picking a side or something, so they just decided it would be 'best for everyone' if they just sat this one out."

" _Are you fucking kidding me_?" Santana hisses out, her voice trembling with rage. Normally, she'd never even dream of cursing in front of Brittany's mother, but that's the last thing on her mind at the moment.

"San-"

"No, Britt!" Santana cuts her off, far too pissed for even Brittany to calm her down. "This is bullshit! _Best for everyone_? Yeah, everyone except the little girl who isn't allowed to have friends because her sister is dating the town lesbian!"

"Santana, sweetie, I know you're upset-"

"Upset isn't the word I'd use," Santana corrects with a scoff, managing to lower her voice when talking to Mrs. Pierce. "I'm going over to that bitch's house and Imma show her how we do things in Lima Heights!"

"San, no, stop," Brittany pleads, tugging on her arm to get her attention. She actually wouldn't be opposed to Katie's mother getting what's coming to her, but the last thing this situation needs is for Santana to give anyone another reason to keep their kids away from their house. "Please don't get all Scary San on us. I know that lady is mean and she sucks, but yelling at her in Spanish and threatening to cut off all her fingers with the razor blades you keep in your hair isn't going to fix this."

Santana still feels her rage boiling inside of her, but she's never been able to deny a plea from Brittany. She nods and slumps her shoulders, deciding to ignore the rage and focus on the guilt. "This is all my fault."

"It's not," Brittany insists, reaching over to grab a hold of Santana's hand. " _I'm_ Ashley's sister, _I'm_ dating you. If it's your fault, it's mine too."

"I'm the one in the commercial," the other girl counters. "I'm the one that was stupid enough to tell Katie's mother I was dating you."

"Santana, that wasn't stupid, that was very brave of you," Mrs. Pierce cuts in, sending the girl an encouraging smile. "After everything you've been through, having the courage to tell a stranger that you're gay, that was incredibly brave."

"Yeah, and look what happened."

Brittany sends her mother a look, begging her to help some more. "You know, I bet if you explained to Ashley what's going on, she'd understand."

Santana's eyes snap up at Mrs. Pierce's words. "No way, she'd hate me!"

"Ash could never hate you, San," the younger blonde assures her, agreeing with her mother. "You know how much Ashley loves you, how supportive she is of us. She'd be mad at Katie's mom, and at least she'd know Katie isn't ignoring her because of something she did."

"You should talk to her," Mrs. Pierce suggests, nodding towards the backyard, where Ashley has stopped bouncing around, and is just sitting in the middle of the blow up house, picking at the seams of the floor.

"And what? Tell her that she was supposed to have a party but nobody came because her friend's mom is a homophobic bitch?"

Mrs. Pierce cringes. "Well, no. I guess not. But I don't know, just talk to her, see what's wrong with her. She's been really quiet since you guys got back. Maybe she was hoping Katie would call or something. Go find out what's wrong and cheer her up the way only you can. It'll make you feel better, too."

"Ugh, fine," Santana grumbles when Brittany nods in agreement. She presses a kiss to Brittany's lips before getting up and heading into the backyard. She passes Mr. Pierce as he heads inside for a bit, leaving the girls alone in the back. She makes her way onto the grasses, towards the castle and stops just short of the entrance. She glances down at her legs, thankful she decided to wear jeans today instead of one of her regular short dresses, and carefully climbs onto the contraption. She remembers jumping around on these things when her and Brittany were younger, but she's not so sure about it now.

Hearing someone coming in, Ashley looks behind her to watch as Santana awkwardly tries to get into the castle. She can't help but laugh as the older girl struggles up the blow up step, and then attempts to crawl towards the middle where she's sitting.

"That's right, laugh it up," Santana groans, crawling over to the little girl in the clumsiest way possible. She wants to be annoyed that she's being laughed at, but she's just happy to see Ashley smiling.

"What are you even doing in here?" the little girl asks once Santana is sitting by her side.

Santana huffs out a breath, exaggerating how much energy she spent getting in there. "Came to check up on you. For being the Birthday Girl, you don't seem too happy. You were fine at breakfast. What happened?"

"Nobody came to the party," she mumbles, too embarrassed to even look at Santana right now. Santana's eyes widen.

"What party?"

Ashley risks at look at the other girl and laughs sadly. "It's okay, Tana, I know there was supposed to be a surprise party today."

"How, how did you know?" If Santana didn't already feel like shit about this whole thing before, knowing Ashley knows about this mess makes her feel like shit run over twice.

"Yesterday, a girl in my class told me she was sorry she wasn't allowed to come to my party today," she explains with a shrug. Santana can see her bottom lip start to quiver and she feels a lump starting to form in her own throat. The little girl sniffles and gives her the most distressed look Santana has ever seen. "How come nobody likes me anymore?"

Santana's heart breaks and she immediately pulls the girl onto her lap, wrapping her arms around her protectively. "That's not … Sweetie, no, it's not that at all."

"It _is_ ," Ashley protests, her little fists rubbing at her eyes to try to stop the tears. "Even Katie doesn't like me anymore."

" _I_ like you," Santana whispers, hoping it'll calm the girl down some. She knows she can't explain everything if Ashley is crying. "I _love_ you. You know that. And Britty does, too. Come on, shhh, calm down, sweetie, it's okay."

It takes a few minutes, but eventually Ashley's tears slow down, and apart from the occasional hiccup, she seems to have calmed. Santana keeps her in her lap, though, and continues to hold her tight, running her fingers through soft blonde hair. After a moment, she tries again.

"Sweetheart, there's something I want to tell you, but I'm afraid you might be a bit too young to understand."

"But I'm nine now!"

Despite the situation, Santana can't help but chuckle. "Yes, you are, you're right. Okay, let's have a grown up conversation then, nine year old." She loosens her hold a bit, and twists Ashley so that she can wrap her tiny legs around her waist, as far as they'll go. She keeps her arms locked around the girl's lower back to support her, and Ashley wraps her arms around her neck so she can lean back and face her. She wipes at Ashley's cheeks with her thumbs, drying some of her tears. "I know it's hard to understand, but this isn't about you, okay, kiddo? It's actually my fault."

Ashley's face scrunches up in the cutest little way that makes her look so much like Brittany it makes Santana's heart ache. "How is it your fault?"

"Do you remember when Britts and I first told you and your parents that we were dating? Do you remember why we told you guys when we did?"

Ashley thinks for a second, and then nods. "The commercial the mean man made, right?"

"That's right," Santana nods, squeezing Ashley's hips a bit. "And you also know that we were dating for a while before that, but in secret." Ashley nods, following along. "Well, we kept it a secret for a reason. See, not everyone is okay with us dating. Some people think it's wrong for two girls, or for two boys, to date each other. They think girls should only date boys, and boys should only date girls. And we, _I_ was afraid of what people would say or do if they found out that I was dating Brittany, since she's a girl."

"That's stupid."

Santana cracks a smile, suddenly even more in love with this little girl than she was a second ago. "Yeah, it is. Has anyone told you about my abuela? My grandmother?" Ashley shakes her head this time. "Before the commercial aired, when we were telling everyone about us, I told my abuela, too and she didn't think it was right for us to be together. Or, at least, to tell people we were. And she felt so strongly about it that she hasn't talked to me since."

"Your grandma doesn't like you anymore, just cause of Britty?" Ashley asks in a small voice, trying to imagine what it would be like if her grandma didn't like her anymore. Santana nods her head, and Ashley can tell she's sad, so she gives her a big hug. "I'm sorry, Tana."

"Thanks, but it's okay," she tells her, not wanting this to get off track. She pulls back a little, so that Ashley will do the same. She reaches a hand up to brush some of the hair out of Ashley's eyes. "The thing is, Katie's mom, she saw the commercial, too. And that day I picked you up, when those girls were teasing you? I ran into her when I asked Katie where you were, and I mentioned that I was dating Britty. She didn't like that very much."

The wheels start to turn in Ashley's head, but it still doesn't make sense to her. "But, how come Katie can't come over then?"

"Her mother doesn't like me," Santana tries to explain, knowing the woman's warped logic will be hard for a kid to understand. Hell, _she_ doesn't even understand what Katie's mother is thinking. "Or Brittany, probably, and doesn't like us being together. And so she doesn't want Katie to be around us, I guess. She thinks we'll be bad for Katie."

"But you and Britty are the best," Ashley argues, starting to get angry. "And Katie loved hanging out with you guys, too! You'd always play with us, or take us to the park or to get ice cream and stuff!"

Santana is touched at the reassurance, but it doesn't really help to ease her guilt. "People like Katie's mom are stubborn, kiddo. They have their beliefs and it's hard to change them. And sometimes they'll share them with other people, like what happened today. Your mom said that Katie's mom told some other parents about her opinions, and that's why the kids didn't come today. It was because of me, not you. You're awesome, Ash, and if it weren't for me, I bet everyone would've come to celebrate with you."

Ashley huffs in annoyance at Santana's words. "Then I'm glad they didn't! If they can't be my friends because you're my friend, then I don't want to be friends with them! I'd rather hang out with you and Britty anyway."

"Really?" She's not really sure how this little girl exists. But then she remembers she's related to Brittany, and thinks she shouldn't be surprised at all.

"Totally," the blonde promises. "You're my best friend, Tana, remember? Best friends are the most important friends."

Santana shuts her eyes and shakes her head, beyond touched. It isn't until she feels Ashley's hands on her face that she realizes she might be crying a bit. She gives Ashley a watery smile and takes a hold of hands, blowing a raspberry on one of her palms to lighten the mood. "I think you might be the most amazing kid in the whole world, you know that?"

"Duh," Ashley replies with a roll of her eyes, channeling her best Santana. She grins when she gets the desired laugh she was going for. "It's not your fault, Tana. It's Katie's mom's fault, and your grandma's and anyone else that has a problem with you dating Britty. Because they don't know how good you are to Britty, and how much you love each other. That's all that matters, I think."

"She's totally right, San," comes a voice from behind them. The girls turn around to find Brittany climbing into the castle and walking over towards them with ease. "That means that me, my mom and Ashley have all told you it's not your fault. I think that means you have to believe us now, cause we're geniuses, right?"

Santana tilts her head backwards to look up at her girlfriend and give her a sheepish smile. "Well, I can't argue with logic like that, now can I?"

"Nope." She crouches down to kiss Santana before shooting back up into a huge jump that sends Santana and Ashley falling over when she lands right beside them.

"Britty!" Ashley squeals when she gets trapped under Santana.

"Careful, Britt," Santana laughs, rolling off her. "I'm gonna smother the poor child."

"Oops?" she replies with a grin, obviously not sorry at all. Santana and Ashley share a look before they both charge at Brittany, and they all land in a giggling pile together.

The three of them spend the rest of the afternoon bouncing around and laughing together, content to ignore the rest of the world.


	6. Wedding Date

"You promise this doesn't look silly?" Brittany asks, looking down at the dress she's trying on for the tenth time, hoping it'll look better the more times she wears it.

Santana smiles at her from her spot sprawled out the bed. "It's not the best dress, I'll grant you, but you totally pull it off. I've seen worse bridesmaids dresses. Like Berry's."

"I liked those ones!"

"Just because they were pink."

"And you only hated them because they were pink," Brittany counters, sticking her tongue out at her girlfriend. Santana shrugs her shoulders in acknowledgement, admitting the blonde was right. Though the lack of visible cleavage might have had something to do with it, too. "Why can't this one be pink?"

"Because Haley didn't want them to look the same as the ones Melissa had last year at her wedding, remember?" She's heard this conversation between Brittany and Mrs. Pierce enough times to know all the details and rationale for every decision Brittany's cousin Haley had made about her wedding. "Don't worry, babe. I'll wear a green dress so we'll match."

Brittany sighs and looks at herself in the mirror one last time before she starts taking it off again. "I keep telling you that you don't have to come this weekend. I'll barely even get a chance to see you."

Santana has a long history of going to Pierce family weddings. Both sides of Brittany's family are pretty large, and between the two, there seems to be at least one cousin getting married every year. Sometimes it's one that Santana knows well, and sometimes it's not, but over the years, Santana has only missed one wedding, and only because she had the flu.

Weddings can be really long and boring, especially when there aren't any other kids there, so Santana mostly goes to keep Brittany entertained throughout the grueling event. However, this time, Brittany's cousin had asked her to be in the wedding party, so the girls wouldn't even get to spend much time together with all the bridesmaid duties Brittany was going to be doing. So the blonde thought it was kind of pointless for Santana to come and subject herself to all that for no reason.

"It's cool," Santana answers, watching as the blonde pulls some tiny shorts up gorgeous legs. "Ash needs some company, too, right? Besides, Haley's probably my favorite of your cousins, and she even put my name on your family's invitation."

"She _does_ really like you," Brittany agrees, sitting down beside her girlfriend as she pulls a shirt on. Santana rolls over onto her back so she's looking up at the other girl. "You know, she called me as soon as her mom told her about us, after we came out?"

"Yeah?" Santana never really thought about how everyone in Brittany's extended family found out about them, or if they even did. It _was_ a really big family, and while they were close enough to get invites to weddings, she wasn't sure what the protocol for that kind of thing was, since her family was pretty small. She thinks maybe it was like a game of telephone, and Mr. Pierce just told one sister, and then it got passed along through the endless string of relatives until everyone knew. "What'd she say?"

"She was super happy for us," Brittany shares, leaning over and propping herself up over Santana's body, most of her weight leaning on her arm that was on the other side of the brunette's body. She brings her other hand up to play with some of Santana's hair that's sprawled out on her comforter. "Said she always had a feeling about us, and wanted to know all the details. And that she better be a bridesmaid at the wedding."

Santana laughs, and gets that familiar fluttering feeling in her stomach that's a little bit panic, but mostly pure happiness. She imagines sometime in the future, when the entire Pierce family gathers for _their_ wedding, and that feeling just gets bigger. "So now we already have a maid of honor _and_ a bridesmaid?"

"Plus all the girls from glee," Brittany reminds her. Santana isn't really sure she plans on keeping in touch with everyone in glee after high school, but she can't really think of anyone else they'd ask.

"At least Q and Wheezy," she compromises. "We'll see about Girl Chang and Sugar. Hell no to Berry, though. That hobbit is not ruining our wedding pictures."

Brittany laughs, but doesn't argue. She lets her hand give, so that her weight is now resting on Santana's stomach, and props herself up on her elbow instead. "So you're sure you want to come? Even though I won't be able to sneak champagne and make fun of everyone from the groom's side with you? I still think you'll be bored."

"Positive," Santana promises, taking the hand that's been playing with her hair and intertwining their fingers. "I wanna see Haley. Ash will be bored out of her mind, so I'll entertain her and keep her out of your parents' hair." Santana smiles, and tugs on the blonde's hand, pulling her closer. "Besides, you know I never pass up a chance to dance with you."

"I _am_ a very good dancer," Brittany smirks, shifting up so she's close enough to drop a soft kiss against Santana's lips.

"Mmm, the best," Santana mumbles against the blonde's lips, looking forward to wasting the rest of the afternoon away with her girlfriend.

 

The night before the wedding, Mrs. Pierce drives Brittany up to her cousin's house to sleep over, since the bridal party has a lot to do early the next morning to get ready for the wedding. Haley invites Santana to come along, but the brunette declines, not wanting to crash on their bonding or whatever it is they're going to be doing. Instead, she has a movie night with Ashley and goes to bed early, knowing she'll have a bit of trouble falling asleep in Brittany's bed alone.

She wakes up to Mr. Pierce cooking one of his usual big weekend breakfasts and he instructs her and Ashley to eat a lot, reminding them that dinner at the wedding will probably be something fancy and gross they won't want to eat. After breakfast, Santana helps Ashley get ready before getting in her own dress and doing her hair and make up. They end up leaving fifteen minutes later than planned, but Mr. Pierce makes good time, and they get to the wedding hall in less than an hour, with plenty of time to spare before the ceremony starts.

As soon as they enter the hall, they're met with hugs from the mother of the bride. "Hello, beautiful people, don't you all look stunning!"

"Hi, Aunt Ellie!" Ashley greets, folding her hands in front of her so she looks proper in her fancy dress. Santana stands behind her, her hands resting on the little girl's shoulders. She's been around Brittany's family for as long as she can remember, and she's pretty familiar with this particular aunt, but she always feels a bit out of place at these things at first. "Like my dress? Tana helped me pick it out."

"It's gorgeous, sweetie," she gushes, sweeping some of Ashley's bangs out of her eyes and sending Santana a warm smile. "I'm so glad you came, Santana."

"Where's that crazy wife of mine?" Mr. Pierce asks after not seeing her anywhere.

"She's somewhere talking to the photographer," she answers her brother, gesturing to her left before turning to Santana. "And yours is in the back, helping the others make sure everything is ready, so just head back there."

Thrown by the wife reference, Santana starts shaking her head. "No, I don't want to interrupt or anything…"

"Don't be silly, Haley made me promise to send you back when you got here."

Ashley can sense her hesitation, so she takes a hold of one of Santana's hands. "Come on, Tana, let's go find Britty."

The two walk hand in hand towards the back, greeting a few family members on their way, and find the room the bridal party is waiting in. Santana knocks, not wanting to walk in on anyone changing, and waits until they're called in. They enter to find Haley standing in the middle of the room in her wedding dress, with some of her bridesmaids fussing around her, making sure everything is in place.

"Satan!" Haley greets with a big smile, waving her and Ashley into the room. "Hey, squirt."

Ashley lets go of Santana's hand and runs over to give the bride a big hug, while her sister makes her way over to take her place. "You're here."

"Of course." Santana playfully rolls her eyes as if to say 'duh', and gives her girlfriend a quick peck on the lips, not caring that she doesn't know half the people in the room. It took her a bit to get comfortable with such displays again after the drama with Katie's mother, but she's getting used to it again. "You look beautiful."

"So do you," Brittany tells her, having not known what Santana was planning on wearing. Just as she promised, they matched perfectly and she suddenly didn't mind her not so pretty bridesmaids dress anymore. "Come on, let me introduce you to everyone."

"Yeah, okay." Santana makes a face, not a fan of first meetings, but doesn't put up a fight when Brittany takes her hand and brings her further into the room.

"You already know Laura," Brittany starts, gesturing to her cousin on her left. Santana nods to the blonde in acknowledgement. She's Haley's sister. "And these are Haley's best friend's Melanie and Brooke. Guys, this is my gorgeous girlfriend, Santana."

The two girls give her welcoming smiles and shake her hand. "With the way Brittany kept gushing about you last night, we couldn't wait to meet you." Santana glances at the blonde beside her, who just smiles and shrugs, not at all embarrassed for her to know she enjoys talking about her.

"Yeah, it was really annoying," Haley cuts in, holding her arms open and motioning for Santana to come give her a hug. "You'd think it was the night before _her_ wedding, the way she talked about you."

Now Brittany's starting to feel a bit embarrassed. So she likes to brag about the fact that she had the best girlfriend in the world. Sue her. "Not my fault my girlfriend is better than your soon to be husband."

"Brat," Haley laughs, letting the comment go and pulling the brunette into a hug. "It's good to see you, Satan." She pulls back to get a look at the girl. "Thank you for wearing a more appropriate dress than the one you wore to Melissa's wedding."

Santana blushes a little, remembering the reveling dress she had worn the previous year, and the way she enjoyed all the scandalized looks she got from the groom's side. The Pierces' didn't really mind, though. They were more than used to her old antics and they weren't really a judgmental group of people. But she's grown a lot since then, and wearing that type of dress to get attention didn't even cross her mind.

"Didn't want to show you up or anything," Santana teases, releasing the older girl from her hold. Haley is all blonde and blue eyes, with a friendly face, just like all her relatives, and Santana always thought of her as a really cool older sister growing up. They haven't seen each other as much in the past few years, but she's someone Santana likes and respects, and she's glad to see she's happy.

"You just being here might do that," Haley gushes, pinching one of her cheeks before her hand is squatted away. "Look at how gorgeous you are. You're glowing. Being honest and in love looks great on you."

Santana shares a look with her girlfriend, who beams at her, then bows her head. "Thanks, Hales. You look great, too. Love the dress. Much better than the bridesmaids ones."

"San," Brittany whispers, nudging her in the side.

"I'll let that one slide," the older girl laughs, stepping back into her place so her friends can continue to fuss over her. "But thank you for coming, I was worried you wouldn't since I'll be keeping your girl busy all night."

"That's okay," Santana replies, waving it off. She pulls Ashley into her side and squeezes the girl's shoulder. "I got my other girl to entertain me. I'm on Ashley duty tonight."

Haley raises an eyebrow. "Well, that's a troublesome twosome if I ever saw one."

Before either girl has a chance to defend themselves, there's a knock at the door, and Ellie Pierce steps inside, letting them know they have forty-five minutes until show time.

"Come on, Ash," Santana speaks, holding her hand out for her to take. "Let's leave these chicks to the girlie stuff, and we'll go explore and make sure we get good seats."

Ashley nods and Brittany walks them to the door, stopping before they leave. "Daniel is coming, and he knows we're together, so if he hits on you, Haley says you have permission to go Lima Heights on him."

Santana rolls her eyes and cringes, just thinking about Brittany's creepy step-cousin. He was around their age, and his father had married into the family a couple years ago and he's been hitting on her ever since. "Tell Haley thanks, but I'll try to control myself."

"Good luck with that," the blonde teases, giving her a quick peek on the lips and a slap on the ass before pushing her and Ashley out the door.

 

Santana and Ashley sit beside Mr. and Mrs. Pierce at the end of the third row of seats, giving them a perfect view of Brittany. Santana is pretty sure the ceremony goes off without a hitch, but she is too busy staring at her stunning girlfriend to really notice much of anything else that's happening. Though she does pay attention long enough to note that Haley makes a beautiful bride and the groom looks decent enough. Before she knows it, everyone is starting to stand up and heading towards the back, signaling the end of the ceremony.

She takes Ashley's hand so she doesn't get lost in the crowd, and the two of them navigate through relatives to find some place to sit and wait. They've all been instructed to hang out for a bit, while the photographer takes the wedding party out to take their wedding pictures. The room is barely large enough to hold the whole Pierce clan, let alone another family and friends, so when Santana is only able to find one empty chair left in the corner of the room, she sits down and pulls Ashley up onto her lap, careful not to mess up either of their dresses. Santana vaguely recognizes the man sitting to their left as one of Mr. Pierce's brothers in law, but she doesn't know the two women to their right, so she assumes they must be on the groom's side.

"Well, that's a very pretty dress," one of the women comments, her tone making it obvious that her comment was directed at Ashley.

The little girl smiles, but doesn't say anything until Santana gives her waist a light squeeze. "Thank you. Santana helped me pick it out."

"I'm Santana," she introduces herself when the woman looks confused. She nods in understanding, giving Santana a smile too. "Are you guys with the groom?"

"I'm his sister, Bridget," the one furthest away answers, then points to the other. "And this is our cousin, Kat. You guys are with the bride, I assume?"

"Haley's my cousin," Ashley tells them proudly. They both smile at her and shift focus to Santana, who's trying to decide how to explain her presence. Last time she came out to someone who didn't already know Ashley became the social pariah of Lima Elementary.

She doubts she'll ever even see these chicks again, though, so she goes for it. "I'm actually dating one of the bridesmaids, so I'm just a plus one."

"She's dating my sister," Ashley explains, narrowing her eyes at them. "And that's allowed. A girl can date another girl if they love each other, and Britty and Tana love each other as much as my mom and dad do, so it you have a problem with that then I'll go all Lima Heights on your-"

"Whoa, whoa," Santana cuts her off with a laugh, tightening her hold on the little girl. She appreciates the gesture more than she can say, but she doesn't think it's needed today. "Chill out, Lil' Snix, it's okay. Give them a chance to react before you bring out the claws."

"Sorry," she mumbles, embarrassed by her outburst. She's just so used to kids at school saying mean things about them that she automatically gets defensive, assuming someone is going to say something mean. She looks up at the surprised women and offers them a shy smile. "I'm sorry."

Kat just laughs and reaches over to pat Ashley on the knee. "It's okay, sweetie. It's totally cool with us. Right, Bridge?"

"Totally."

Santana offers them a smile, not knowing what else to say. Her first instinct is to thank them, but thanking them for not being assholes about something that's none of their business doesn't really make sense to her, so she refrains. Instead, she just sits back and listens as Ashley continues the conversation.

 

The four of them end up sitting at the same table during the reception. While most of the tables are split based on which side of the wedding they're on, all the 'kids' (which is really just anyone under thirty that isn't married) are grouped together at a large table at the back of the room. Other than Daniel, who Santana made sure was on the opposite end of the table; she and Ashley are the youngest ones there.

"This is gross," Ashley whispers to Santana, poking the food around her plate.

Santana smirks at the look of disgust on Ashley's face. "Yeah, it is. And this is only the appetizer."

"Will the rest of dinner be this gross?" Santana leans back in her chair, catching a glimpse of one of the catering tables around the corner. She can't tell what they're preparing, but she can tell it doesn't look appealing.

"Afraid so, kid."

Ashley pouts, and drops her fork. "But I'm hungry and Lord Tubbington's cat food probably tastes better than this stuff."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Santana asks with a shrug.

"Can't we go somewhere else for dinner? We passed a McDonalds on the way here."

"We can't just leave!"

Ashley nods towards the table her parents are sitting at. "Go ask them."

Santana waits until the servers start coming around to gather people's plates and other people start milling around a bit before she stands up and makes her way over to where the Pierces are sitting. Everyone at the table greets her loudly, and she returns it with a shy wave and smile. "Hey, everyone."

"What's up, sweetie?" Mrs. Pierce asks, turning in her chair to give Santana her full attention.

"Ash hates the food," she shares with a laugh, not mentioning that she shares her opinion. When Mrs. Pierce raises an eyebrow, and rolls her eyes. "Okay, so do I. But she's the one that's apparently starving. She wanted me to ask if we could go to the McDonalds around the corner to get something else."

Mr. Pierce chuckles, having known this was going to happen. "That's fine with us. You can take the car if you want."

"Just let Haley know you're leaving for a bit," Mrs. Piece suggests as her husband hands over the car keys.

Santana nods, and glances towards the table the bridal party is sitting at, and sees that Brittany has been watching her. She gives the Pierces a smile and quickly makes her way over to the table in the middle of the room. As soon as she reaches the table, Brittany grabs her hand, pulling her around the side so she can hug her around her waist.

"Hey, baby," Santana speaks, carefully running her fingers over Brittany's hair.

"I miss you," Brittany mumbles, her words muffled. "You're so far away."

The brunette laughs and squeezes her shoulder. "I know, we miss you, too. It's weird being at a wedding and not having to dodge the food you and Ashley are throwing at each other while I'm stuck between you."

"We'll make it up to you tomorrow at breakfast," the blonde promises, pulling away from her girlfriend and looking up at her. "What were you doing over there?"

"Ash is hungry and would apparently rather eat Tubbs' food than this stuff. So I think we're gonna go to Micky D's and get something else to eat. I'm just gonna let Haley know."

Brittany's eyes light up. "Bring me back a Happy Meal?"

"Of course," Santana promises. She knew Brittany wasn't enjoying the food either. She caresses Brittany's cheek for a moment and gives her a smile, then moves over to talk to the bride. "Hey, Hales. Do you mind if Ash and I go get something a bit more appetizing to eat?"

Haley smirks and nods. "That's fine. We're doing speeches between the courses, so we'll probably be eating for another hour or so, if you wanna stay out till then. But you have to be back for cake and dancing."

"Okay, sounds good," she agrees, bending down to give the bride a quick hug.

"And make sure not to mess up that dress, cause I want to get a picture with you and Britt after, okay?" Santana agrees, and after a quick trip back to her girlfriend, she heads back over to get Ashley.

 

"Better?"

"Much," Ashley answers with an emphatic nod, taking another bite of her burger. Santana laughs at her enthusiasm and takes a sip of her Coke.

"So, Haley said that we have about an hour to kill before the cake comes," she informs her, picking up a fry to pop in her mouth. "So do you wanna just hang out here once you're finished dinner? Britt wanted us to bring her back a Happy Meal, so we'll get that before we leave."

The tiny blonde nods and goes back to eating. Santana glances around the restaurant, and it's pretty empty considering it's dinner time, but they still stick out like sore thumbs in their fancy dresses. She doesn't care how weird they look, though. Ashley is happy, and that's all that matters.

"Tana?"

"Yeah, squirt?"

"Can you and Britty serve McDonalds at your wedding?"

"Sure. I bet Britts would love that."

Ashley nods her head, satisfied. Santana watches her finish her burger, her eyebrows knitted up like she's pondering something. She waits until it's done before she asks, "Am I related to Kat and Bridget now?"

"Don't think so," Santana tells her, playing with her straw.

"Am I related to Chris?"

Santana tilts her head, thinking. "Yeah, I guess so. He's your second cousin or cousin-in-law or something, maybe."

"Cool," the girl comments with a smile, always happy when their family is expanded. She moves to start on her fries when a thought comes to her. "So, when you and Britty get married, you'll be my sister-in-law?"

"Yep," Santana answers, a huge grin spreading across her face at the thought. She's loved this little girl like she was her little sister since the day she was born, but the idea of it being official feels amazing. She's always wanted to marry Brittany because she's never, and will never, want anyone else, but she's never thought of all the other amazing things, amazing _people_ , she'd get to be with forever, too. She thinks about Mr. Pierce making her breakfast this morning, of the welcoming hugs she received from all the Pierces at the wedding, how Haley has been going out of her way to make her feel included. She thinks about how she told Kat and Bridget earlier that she was Brittany's plus one, when she's felt like part of the family all day. "You okay with that?"

"Totally," Ashley beams, ripping a fry apart and popping half of it into her mouth. "You're already like my big sister anyway. So it won't be much different, right?" Ashley is too distracted with playing with her food to notice the way Santana's face softens at her words, displaying just how touched she is. "But it'll be cool to be able to call you that."

"Have I ever told you that you're the greatest kid on the planet?"

Ashley rolls her eyes playfully. "Like every day. It's almost annoying"

"Well, then stop being so amazing, and I'll stop annoying you."

"Impossible," she tells her, giving her an exaggerated smile. "If I'm so amazing, can I get a McFlurry?"

"They're serving cake when we get back," Santana answers, crumpling up her wrapper and tossing it onto the tray, done with her meal. "I promise to get you some ice cream tomorrow though, okay?"

Ashley knows Santana never breaks a promise, at least not to her, so she accepts it and continues eating. "Two scoops. Cause I'm extra awesome."

Santana chuckles, checking her watch. "Alright, Miss Awesome, finish your fries so we can get Britt's Happy Meal and head back to the wedding hall before they cut the cake."

"Yes, ma'am." Ashley quickly shoves her last few fries into her mouth and then emptying the last of her drink. "Done!"

Santana slips out of the booth, and Ashley quickly follows. "Hey, wait," Santana starts, tugging slightly on the strap of Ashley's dress when she starts moving to toss away their garbage. The little girl looks up at her expectantly. "Come here, give me hug for being so awesome."

Ashley doesn't question it, used to Santana's random moments of sappiness lately, and wraps her little arms around the older girl's waist, holding on tight. "You're weird."

"I'll fit right in with you crazy Pierces then, won't I?"

"You already fit in, Tana," Ashley tells her like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "You've been part of the family longer than even me!"

Santana squeezes her eyes shut, and shakes her head. "Ash." She pulls back to cup both of the blonde's cheeks, gazing down at her with all the love she has for her. "You have _got_ to stop saying stuff like that."

"Stuff like what?" the girl asks, genuinely confused by her reaction.

"Nevermind," the brunette tells her, brushing her thumb over Ashley's cheek once more before pulling away. "Let's go order, you little brat."

 

After filling themselves up with cake, and then dancing up a storm to burn it off, Santana, Brittany and Ashley are dead tired, and they go in search of some place to rest. Brittany mentions that the room they were getting ready in earlier had couches, and the trio head in that direction. They ignore the mess in the room and go straight for the couch. Santana collapses in the middle, and the two blondes fall on either side of her.

"I'm tired," Brittany sighs, kicking off her heels and pulling her legs up to rest underneath her.

"You've been up since the crack of dawn," Santana reminds her, looping her arm around Brittany and pulling her tightly against her side. "I'll let you sleep all day tomorrow, okay?"

Brittany hums in agreement, resting her head against her girlfriend's chest. Santana feels Ashley shuffling on her other side, and turns just in time to see the little girl curl up and rest her head on her lap. Given the time, Santana figures all the official wedding stuff is done, so she carefully takes the ties and clips out of Ashley's hair, releasing it from its confines. She knows she gets a headache if her hair is pulled too tight for too long.

"Thanks, Tana," she mumbles, her voice trailing off as she starts to fall asleep.

"Looks like someone's even more tired than you, Britts."

Brittany brushes some of the hair out of her sister's face to see that her eyes are in fact closed. "What a baby."

"Well, she is really tiny," Santana reminds her, absentmindedly rubbing soothing circles on Ashley's back. "Try to stay away, okay? I can't carry you both out to the car."

"I'll try," the blonde promises, dropping a kiss to her girlfriend's collarbone. There isn't a place in the world that's more comfortable to her than pressed against Santana, but she fights her hardest to keep her eyes open. "So did you have fun today? Even though we couldn't hang out?"

"Yeah," she answers, smiling down at the girl in her lap when she remembers their conversation earlier. "The little munchkin was good company."

Brittany smiles, glad to hear it. She really loves Santana and Ashley together. She likes knowing there's someone else in the world that sees Santana as the amazing person she is and loves her almost as much as she does. She feels a surge of affection for her little sister, and reaches out to play with her hair, just to feel close to her.

The three of them sit in silence, cuddled together, until Brittany starts feeling herself drifting off to sleep. She blinks a few times to fight the sleep away, and starts to talk again to keep herself awake. "Everyone kept asking when our wedding is gonna be."

"Yeah? What'd you say?"

"Just that I didn't know," Brittany quickly answers, not being able to read Santana's tone. She pulls away slightly, resting her cheek against the girl's shoulder so she can see her face. "I mean, I know we were joking about it before, but I don't want you to freak out or anything."

Santana just smiles, turning her head to press her lips to the blonde's forehead. "Don't worry, I'm not. I'm pretty sure I was planning our wedding in the second grade."

"Really?"

"I bet you anything there are plans for a Lizzie McGuire themed wedding catered by Breadstix, with a totally outdated set list in one of my old diaries or something."

Brittany's face lights up. "That sounds totally awesome!"

"I promise our wedding will be awesome," Santana vows, her eyes sparkling. "Nothing boring and traditional, no offense to Haley. It'll be something totally us, okay?" Brittany nods, her eyes reflecting that same sparkle right back the brunette. "Our wedding is gonna be totally awesome, but it's what comes after the wedding that I'm really looking forward to."

"The honeymoon?"

"No," Santana laughs, but then rethinks it. "Well, okay, yeah, _definitely_ the honeymoon, too. But I meant marriage. Our wedding day will be unbelievable and like twenty years in the making, but it's the stuff that comes after that, that will really be amazing. The house, the joint bank accounts, the in-laws, the family get togethers, the _kids._ The rest of our lives, _together_. Our wedding will obviously be the event of the century, but I can't wait to have a _marriage_ with you, Britts."

Brittany's eyes shine with unshed tears and she tries to swallow past the lump in her throat, but can't. She shifts closer before she hears Ashley mumble something in her sleep. "If my little sister wasn't sleeping on top of you, I would so be smothering you in sweet lady kisses right now."

"Just give me some in PG rated places then," she counters, pointing to her lips. Brittany doesn't waste a moment pressing their lips together, the thought of a lifetime of kisses making it taste sweeter than it ever has before.


	7. Good Reputation

"So are you guys going tomorrow night?" Puck asks, throwing himself into one of the chairs behind Brittany and Santana in the choir room.

Santana makes a face and just barely turns around in her seat to give Puck the minimum amount of attention required for this conversation. "Going where?"

"You didn't hear?" Artie asks, rolling up into his designated spot and leaning over to remain part of the conversation.

"Obviously not, Wheels," she answers, but without much bite. Santana doesn't really know how she feels about him, since she figures she's supposed to hate him on principle, but she finds he's much less annoying now that he's nowhere near Brittany. Judging by the lack of cowering under her glare, Artie is over it all too. "Well?"

"Rachel's throwing another party," Puck informs them. "She says no alcohol this time, but I'm totally loading up my truck with six packs and I'll convince her. And if not, I'll just spike whatever tooty-fruity drink she ends up serving."

Artie nods his head victoriously. "It'll be off the hook, yo."

"As much as I'd like to see which comically unavailable person Berry makes out with and subsequently falls in love with this time, we have plans."

"We do?"

Santana turns to her girlfriend and gives her a soft smile and nudges her shoulder. "We have Ashley's soccer tournament, remember? We promised we'd take her."

"Oh, right," the blonde replies, remembering how Ashley pouted when they missed her last game until they gave in and promised to attend her day long tournament that weekend. "That won't be done in time?"

"We'll probably be tired, babe," Santana reminds her. "It starts at 9, and could go all day." Brittany pouts, and it doesn't take long until Santana relents. She turns back towards the boys and rolls her eyes. "We'll see."

Puck and Artie high five in celebration. "Sweet! It's not a party without Britt getting naked!"

"I will castrate you, Puckerman."

Before Santana has time to get out of her seat to make good on her threat, more glee club members come filing in, and fill up the chairs, throwing greetings to the members already there. It isn't long before Rachel is standing in front of them, looking like she's ready to give some kind of presentation.

"Brittany, Santana," she begins, pushing her bangs out of her face. "As I'm sure Noah and Artie have already informed you, I am hosting another get together at my house tomorrow evening. However, in respect to my role as the hostess, I would also like to extend a formal invitation to the both of you. Due to the colossal mishap that resulted from my last shindig, my dads have prohibited any and all consumption of alcohol, but I can assure you that there will be a large array of other, age appropriate beverages to choose from. The fun will start at 7 o'clock sharp, and with senior year rapidly coming to a close, I think it would be nice if all of our group-"

Santana lets out an exaggerated groan, effectively silencing the yammering girl. "Save your breath, Barbra. Britts and I already have plans, but we'll try to make it, okay?"

"Santana," the other girl starts, and Santana can already hear the condescension reeking from her voice. It takes all of her will power not to scowl at her. "When someone requests an RSVP, it's quite rude to give such a noncommittal answer."

"We're taking my sister to her soccer tournament," Brittany answers for them, knowing Santana is about to say something rude. As much as she usually enjoys seeing her girlfriend rip into the other girl, she's already heard enough of Rachel's annoying rambling and doesn't want to prolong it. "If her team does well, we'll have to stay longer."

"So like I said, Berry," Santana cuts in, folding her arms across her chest. "We'll see."

Rachel huffs and storms away, leaving the girls in peace. "I suddenly hope the tournament lasts all weekend somehow."

"Yeah, you know I loves me some house parties, but I forgot that it'd involve being around Berry all night." Brittany cringes at the thought. "I can only handle that drunk, and I don't trust Puck enough to risk doing that sober."

"We'll just have to cheer extra loud for Ash and her team to win."

"Bigger signs than normal, definitely."

Brittany grins, and runs a finger along Santana's cheek. "And I'm totally painting your face. I'm not taking no for an answer this time."

"If you think it'll help," Santana laughs, attempting to playfully bite the finger caressing her face.

"Whipped," comes a muffled voice from behind them, not at all well disguised by a fake cough. Santana turns around to glare at Puck, while Artie, Mercedes and Sam try to stifle their laughs but fail.

Santana pouts when she sees Brittany crack a smile as well. "You'll all pay for that."

 

"Are you girls sure you don't mind taking Ash tomorrow?" Mrs. Pierce asks as she moves around the kitchen, cleaning up the mess she made while cooking dinner.

"They promised!" Ashley butts in from her seat at the table. The three girls are all huddled together doing their respective homework, Santana stopping every once in awhile to help one of the blondes if they need it.

Santana laughs, and bumps her shoulder into the younger girl. "It's no problem, Mrs. P. We did promise, and Britt could use some sun. She's a little pale."

"Am not!" Brittany whines from her side. She pouts until Santana drops a kiss on her shoulder in apology. "I thought you liked how pale I am."

"I like everything about you."

Ashley makes fake gagging sounds at their words, even though she loves that Brittany and Santana love each other so much. She just doesn't always need to see or hear it. And she's been hearing and seeing it a lot lately. "Do you guys always have to do that?"

"You'll understand some day, kiddo." Santana says it to tease the girl, but the sudden thought of Ashley dating sometime in the future makes her incredibly nervous. She pictures some punk kid taking her out to the movies and putting the moves on her like guys use to do to her, and she feels her muscles tighten. She's _so_ gonna be the overprotective surrogate big sister when that time comes. "When you're thirty, and you're allowed to date."

"I like the sound of that," Mrs. Pierce comments with a laugh. She can't help but feel a little sorry for her youngest daughter, knowing that between her father and Santana, anybody she tries to date is going to be put through the ringer.

"That's not fair! Britty and Tana have basically been dating since they were my age!" Ashley protests.

Mrs. Pierce dries her hands off on the dish towel, before throwing it over her shoulder. She sends Santana a warm smile. "Well, if you meet someone that treats you as well as Santana treats Brittany, then we'll talk."

While Santana blushes at the compliment, Brittany beams and reaches around her girlfriend to poke her sister teasingly. "Good luck with that, Ash."

The youngest Pierce sulks because she knows that will be impossible.

 

"Santana!" Brittany giggles when her eyes drift over to her girlfriend's sign. "You can't write that!"

The other girl leans back to look at her work, not seeing the problem. "Why not?"

"Everyone there is going to be under the age of ten," she explains, even though she's pretty sure Santana knows perfectly well why her sign is inappropriate. "I don't think their parents would like you having a sign with bad words on it and that tells Ashley to kill them all. No matter how cute the little drawing of her jumping up and down on some fat kid is."

"That's no fun," Santana grumbles, though she's really just trying to be difficult for the fun of it. She grins at Brittany, and pulls out the sign hidden underneath the one Brittany just vetoed and shows her girlfriend. "Is this boring one better?"

Brittany reads it over, a simple 'Pierce is Fierce' with 'Go, Ashley, Go!' underneath it, and nods her head in approval. "Much. Now we just have to decide what you want painted on your face."

"I'm not painting my face, Britts."

"But you said!"

"I didn't think you were serious," Santana whines. She doesn't even know why she's bothering, since she knows she'll give in anyway. If Brittany doesn't wear her down tonight, Ashley will pile on in the morning and it will be impossible to refuse them both. "Do you even have face paint?"

Brittany nods. "My dad and his friends always paint their faces or chests when they go to real games. If he has blue it'll match Ashley's jersey color!"

"We'll see," Santana offers, capping her marker and slipping it back into its box. "It's enough we're taking her to this thing and staying all day."

"Oh, don't act like doing Ash a favor is some big chore for you," Brittany counters with a smirk. She slips an arm around the other girl's shoulders and pulls her into her side. "You can be all big and tough at school, and act like this is some kind of punishment, but I know you're like totally happy to go cheer Ashley on."

Santana huffs half heartedly, but doesn't argue. "But I have a rep to maintain, Britt. You heard Puck and them today. It's bad enough they know how whipped I am for you. I don't need them to know your little sister has me wrapped around her finger, too."

"Aw, San," Brittany coos, pressing her lips to Santana's forehead with a small laugh. Santana pouts and unfolds her arms to wrap around Brittany's waist.

"Nobody will take my Lima Heights threats seriously if they know."

"We can't have that," the blonde agrees, even though she knows that nobody really takes her threats seriously as it is. Ever since the Lauren Zizes smack down last year, there's been significantly less fear among the student body. "It'll be our little secret. Now go get changed into your jammies, and I'll clean this stuff up."

Santana mumbles an agreement but is too comfortable to get up yet.

 

It's almost 3:30pm the next afternoon, and Santana has blue paint on her face. It's just a tiny 15, Ashley's jersey number, on her cheek, so it could be worse. And okay, the way Ashley's face lit up when she saw it earlier made it worth it, but she knows if she pretends it's bothersome then Brittany will do something to thank her later.

"Mercedes just texted," Brittany informs her, reading over the words on her screen. Ashley isn't on the field at the moment, so neither girl is really paying that much attention. "She wants to know if we think we'll be able to make Rachel's party."

Santana checks the time on her own phone and contemplates. If Ashley's team loses their current game, they'll be done for the day, and if not, the championship game is next anyway. There's supposed to be some pizza dinner for the team after, so either way they should be free. "Probably, yeah."

The blonde nods and types her message back to her friend, just in time to see her sister making her way onto the field. "Oh, Ashley's back on!"

"Finally," Santana grumbles, wondering why the coach even bothers taking her out when she's the best one on the team. It's no wonder they're losing. "This might be the last time she's in, so scream extra loud so we can really embarrass her."

"You're so mean."

"You love it," she replies with a wink, handing her girlfriend the sign she made last night. Brittany smirks back before the pair of them start yelling obnoxiously in support of Ashley. The tiny blonde looks over at them, mortified by their behavior, and tries motioning for them to shut up, which only causes them to yell louder.

"She's gonna kill us later," Brittany giggles, watching as the other kids on the field look from Ashley to them in confusion, while Ashley seems to be trying to act like she doesn't know who they are.

Santana laughs. "That's what she gets for guilt tripping us into coming." Their cheers start to get drowned out as the game starts again, and all the other people on the sidelines get going as well. The girls watch and cheer as Ashley runs around the field, outplaying almost everyone on either team.

"Ash just needs another goal and she'll have a cat trick, right?"

" _Hat_ trick, B," Santana corrects her with a smile, only taking her eyes off the game for a moment. She likes to make a fuss, but she really does enjoy watching Ashley's games and seeing the little girl in her element, kicking ass and taking names.

"What do hats have to do with soccer?"

"What do _cats_ have to do with soccer?"

"Lord Tubbington is really good," Brittany answers seriously, though the glint in her eye leads Santana to believe she's just trying to be cute. "You should see him practice with Ash. He makes a good goalie."

Santana rolls her eyes but chuckles, more than used to LT's apparent ability to do anything a human can do. If he wasn't so fat and squishy, she might think he was a robot cat or something. She wouldn't put it passed her girlfriend to be able to make one. "Of course he is. But to answer your question, yeah, if she gets one more goal, she'll have a hat trick. I think. I'm not sure how it works for tournaments like this, if the goals have to all be in the same game, or if her goals from earlier count too."

"I think it should count," Brittany decides.

"Then it'll count," Santana agrees, bringing the hand she's holding up to her lips to kiss it. She turns back to the game just in time to see a girl she's positive is too old to be playing in this league purposely run into Ashley, sending her crashing to ground. She and Brittany react immediately, sitting up straight in their chairs, waiting for the little girl to get up. "Oh, hell no!"

Brittany tightens her hold on Santana's hand to keep her in place as a couple of Ashley's teammates help her off the ground, and she seems to be fine. "Look, San, it's okay, Ash isn't hurt or anything."

"Fuck that!" Santana hisses, narrowing her eyes at the girl that hit Ashley. "Did you see her? That beast totally did that shit on purpose. Little bitch has a death wish."

"Excuse me," a voice to their right cuts in. Santana's attention turns to a woman that she thinks is probably in her thirties, who looks crazier than Mr. Schue's ex-wife. "That's my kid you're talking about."

Santana's eyes flash, and while Brittany knows she should at least try to contain the situation, she also knows there isn't much point. "Yeah, well, did you see what your kid just did to mine? Put a leash on that thing, lady."

"I think you're the one that needs the leash," she retorts with a scoff. "It's part of the game."

"Oh, I didn't realize we were watching a _football_ game," Santana snaps, rolling her eyes. Brittany bites her lip to keep from reminding Santana that some people do actually refer to soccer as football. She doesn't think that will help the situation. "Pretty sure there's no tackling in soccer. Tell your ogre to tone it down a notch or twenty."

The woman gasps. "How dare you!"

"Okay, okay," another voice cuts in, and Brittany has never been more thankful to see Ashley's assistant coach than she is right now. She's watched him break up many soccer mom fights in the past, so she trusts him to be able to get it all under control. "The girls are over it, and are back to playing, so why don't we all just calm down and get back to watching the game, shall we? Set a good example?"

"Whatever," Santana mumbles, letting Brittany pull her back into her chair. She crosses her arms and glares at the other woman. "They're both on my list now."

"I know," the blonde assures, running a hand up and down the other girl's back to soothe her. "That list is getting pretty long, sweetie."

"People seriously need to stop pissing me off," she whines with a pout, finally turning away from the other woman completely. She's met with Brittany showing her a matching sympathetic pout, and she melts a little. One would think that their pouts would lose their power with how much they do it, but yet. "Or I could try to not get angry so easily."

Brittany laughs knowingly. "That's not happening."

"Yeah, probably not."

 

It's 7pm when they knock on Rachel Berry's front door. They can hear the show tunes from where they stand on the porch, and Santana is already cringing.

"What kind of music _is_ that?'

Santana looks down at the tiny blonde standing in front of her, who's looking up at her with messy hair and terrified eyes. "The devil's music." And right on cue, the door in front of them opens to reveal Rachel's beaming face. "Speaking of…"

"Brittany, Santana, you made it!" The massive grin on her face a huge give away that Puck succeeded in his mission and she's already more than a little tipsy. It takes a moment for her glazed eyes to wander down to Ashley. "And you brought a guest!"

"This is my little sister, Ashley," Brittany explains, placing her hand on the top of the girl's head as if Rachel would be confused in her drunken state. "My parents ended up going out with their friends, and we couldn't leave her at home. Is it okay if she's here?"

Rachel kneels down to get a good look at the girl. She studies her for a moment before giving a firm nod and standing back up. "While I must admit that I can't help but question the decision making skills of the adults that would leave the two of you responsible for a small child, as evidenced by your decision to bring said child to a party, the more the merrier!"

"Awesome, thanks," Brittany cheers, completely missing the insult in Rachel's words.

Santana, however, doesn't. "Yeah, _thanks_ , Berry." With a roll of the eyes, Santana takes Ashley's hand and pushes her way into the house, shoulder checking Rachel in the process. Brittany offers Rachel a shrug, and follows after them. Rachel, in her drunken state, doesn't really care, and just closes the door and heads back to her party.

When they enter the basement, the scene that greats them is reminiscent of Rachel's last house party. Blaine and Kurt are up on the mini stage, performing some god awful Broadway song, Mike and Tina are in the corner making out, Quinn and Mercedes seem somewhat sober, talking on the couch, and everyone else is dancing or running around the room.

"Jesus," Santana mumbles, taking the room in. "It's only 7, and you're all already off your faces?"

Rachel appears behind the girls, surveying the party. "Well, everyone has been here since this afternoon, when Noah apparently started spiking the delicious punch I made last night. So, unbeknownst to me, we all started getting intoxicated quite early. I think it influenced by decision to let the boys drop the pretense and bring in the booze."

"You think?"

"I do," Rachel nods seriously. She sways in her spot for a moment, before walking away abruptly to throw herself at Finn.

"She's weird," Ashley comments. She's met a few of her sister's friends before: Quinn, when the three of them were closer, Mercedes during the Troubletones days, Artie when he was dating Brittany, and Mike when he'd come over to talk about choreography. But she's never been around them all as a group before, and the whole atmosphere is kind of overwhelming, but she didn't want to make Brittany and Santana miss the party to watch her, so she put her discomfort aside and offered to come.

Brittany nods in agreement. "Even _I_ think so."

"Come on, weirdoes," the brunette laughs, tugging them towards the couch Quinn and Mercedes are on. She wants to keep Ashley away from the craziness, and she's met them before, so she figures it's the best choice.

"You made it," Mercedes greets them, happy to have more sober people around to talk to. She's the designated driver for the evening, and Quinn figured that with her recent history of craziness, she should probably avoid getting drunk and angry. "I have never been happier to see you, Satan."

Santana playfully glares at the girl, but it doesn't fool anyone. "Oh, please, Wheezy, you know you're always happy to see me." She's always liked Mercedes, but after being in the Troubletones together, she's probably tied with Quinn for her closest non-Pierce friend. Not that she has a whole lot of competition in that area, but to consider someone an actual friend is a big deal to Santana, so she hopes Mercedes appreciates it.

"Not as happy as I am to see you go."

"Wait, was that a comment about my ass? It's always the ones you least expect."

"You know what I meant," the other girl counters. "And that obviously wasn't the case with you, you couldn't have been more obvious."

"Hey, Ashley," Quinn cuts in, knowing how the two of them can get if they really get going. The little girl turns her attention towards the blonde, giving her a shy smile. "How'd your tournament go?"

Ashley nervously tugs on her jersey, feeling self conscious in it all of a sudden. "We came in second."

"She got a _hat_ trick," Brittany shares, making sure to use the right word this time. Judging by Santana's nod of approval, she was correct.

"And team MVP."

"That's what I'm talking about," Mercedes cheers, holding her hand up for a high five. Ashley hesitates for just a moment before responding, but eventually does with a smile.

Brittany softly runs her hand along Santana's lower back and she moves around her to take a seat beside Mercedes. "And San almost got into a fight with a mom from the other team."

"Of course she did," Quinn laughs, not the least bit surprised. Judging by the look on her face, Mercedes isn't either. "You're already a soccer mom, how cute."

Santana's first instinct is to make a comment about how the only mother in the room is Quinn herself, but she knows that would be a low blow, especially considering everything that just happened with Beth. So, unlike she would've done less than a year ago, she bites her tongue and lets the comment slide. "I painted my face and everything, figured I might as well go all out."

"Well, who do we have here?" comes a slurred voice from behind them, effectively stopping any mocking that might have resulted from the face paint.

"Lady Hummel," she greets, taking in his appearance. "I didn't take you for a sloppy drunk."

Kurt nods mournfully. "I'll be mortified come morning. And the little lady is?"

"Britt's sister," Santana informs him, hands on the girl's shoulders protectively. Obviously she knows there's no need in their current company, but she knows Ashley is a bit uncomfortable. "Ash, this is Kurt, glee club's founding gay."

"It's always a colorful introduction with you, Santana," the boy comments before bending down to get to Ashley's level, ignoring the way his head spins slightly. "Hello, Ashley. Aren't you just the cutest little thing."

Feeling Ashley tense at the attention of the unknown boy, Santana pulls her closer to her. "Back off, Rainbow Brite, you're scaring her. You've met her, now run along to your little Warbler before his co-dependency starts showing."

"I'd have an equally witty comeback to that if I was sober," Kurt informs her, affronted. He meets Santana's glare and his shoulders visible slump. "But since I'm not, I'm just gonna be the bigger person and walk away." With that, he spins on his heel and makes his way back over to where Blaine is doing shots with Puck, Sugar, and Artie.

"You okay?" Santana questions the tiny blonde once they're alone. She knows the girl is shy, but Kurt is one of the least threatening people she knows, so for her to be so closed off with him was a little weird. Ashley just nods, sending her a smile to seem more convincing. "Well, you want anything to eat? Or drink, if there's anything Puckerman hasn't spiked yet?"

They had just come from dinner with her team, but they left before dessert was ordered, and she was extra hungry after running around all day. "Something to eat?"

"I'm hungry, too," Brittany announces, pushing up from the seat she just sat down in. She holds out a hand for her sister to take. "Let's go find something." Santana takes the seat Brittany just left, and watches as her girls walk towards the refreshment table Rachel had set up across the room.

"What's wrong with her?" Mercedes asks, once the blondes are out of earshot. "I don't remember her being so quiet."

"I don't know, she's not usually," she agrees, pondering the behavior. "It's probably just overwhelming, you know? All the people in here, that are drunk and obnoxious."

"You'd think she'd be used to obnoxious by now," Mercedes teases, earning her an elbow to the ribs.

Santana watches as Mike and Tina join the blondes at the snack table, trying to make conversation. Ashley seems a bit more responsive this time, probably because there's less people and she's met Mike before. "Maybe it's because of all the weird stuff with her friends at school. Ever since Britt and I came out, things haven't been so great for her there, with annoying ass parents being assholes and everything. She's probably not used to people wanting to talk to her."

"That's horrible."

"Tell me about it," Santana agrees, feeling that familiar mixture of guilt and rage bubbling up in her gut. "I feel like shit anytime I see her playing by herself or asking us to do something with her."

Quinn and Mercedes share a look, both wanting to comfort their friend and tell her it's not her fault, but they know she's probably been told that a million times by now, and that she'll never believe it. Instead, they decide to help her, and Quinn turns to Mercedes with an idea. "Hey, what about Jack?"

"Who?"

"My little brother, Jackson," Mercedes answers, seeing where Quinn is going with this. "What grade is Ashley in?"

"Third."

"Same as Jackson. I wonder if they're in the same class."

"Ashley's in Mrs. Randall's class," Santana informs her, and Mercedes is impressed that she knows that. She doesn't even know the name of her own brother's teacher, let alone Sam's brother's or sister's. "Is there a point to this?"

"Maybe they can be friends," Quinn explains, gesturing between Mercedes and the little girl across the room. "They're the same age, Jackson is a total sweetheart, and obviously his parents won't have a problem with you and Britt."

"What is this, a blind date or something?" Santana questions, though she's contemplating it. She wants Ashley to have a friend more than anything, and she can't deny that the idea of it being someone she sort of knows by proxy makes it even more appealing.

The other girls roll their eyes. "Just think about it, I bet they'd make great friends."

 

A couple hours later, and Ashley is a bit more relaxed. She's been introduced to every member, and even talked to most of them, and now she's dancing around with Brittany and Santana. She's visibly tired from her long day, but she's having fun and doesn't want to admit defeat yet.

Quinn and Mercedes have gained some company on the couch, in the form of friends starting to sober up and crash. The ones that aren't passed out are making conversation, trying not to throw up, or watching the ones still dancing.

"Puck!" Santana glares at him, and making a 'cut it out' motion with her hand.

"What?"

"Change the song," she orders him, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "You can't play that crap when there's an eight year old around."

"Nine!"

"Sorry, of course, nine," she tells Ashley sweetly, smiling apologetically at her, before going right back to scowling at Puck when the music hasn't changed yet. "Now change it before I skin you alive." Puck raises his hands in surrender and does just that, the next song coming on a slow one. As soon as the beat slows down, so does Ashley's energy and Santana can feel her slump against her side.

"Someone's sleepy," Brittany comments, running her fingers through her sister's soft blonde hair.

Santana looks sympathetically the little girl. "You tired, sweetie?" Ashley doesn't want to admit it, but eventually gives a slight nod, not even bothering to look up. Santana bends down to pick her up and Ashley wraps her legs around Santana's waist and her arms around her neck. "You've had a big day and it's almost your bedtime."

"One more song," she mumbles against Santana's shoulder. The brunette looks to her girlfriend and gets a nod of approval.

"Okay, one more song and then we'll get you home and into bed, okay?"

As the three of them continue to sway to the melody booming through the speakers, some of their friends watch them from across the room. "They're so cute. They look like a little family."

"I never would've guessed Santana likes kids," Blaine comments, watching the scene upside down from his position sprawled out on the floor.

Quinn has to laugh at that. "Oh, believe me, she doesn't like kids. It's just Ashley."

"Figures," Mercedes throws in, and Sam mumbles in agreement beside her, his head too sore to actually speak. "Anything Brittany related is her exception."

"If you think Brittany's got her whipped, you should see her with Ashley," Quinn begins, only feeling a little bad for ruining her friend's rep. Half of her listening audience probably won't even remember any of this come morning. "Or when both of them tag team her. They can get her to do anything, like paint her face. It would actually be cute if it weren't so pathetic."

"Maybe if I dye my hair blonde, she'll be nicer to me."

"Yeah, right," Quinn replies back with a scoff. "You think I hold any of that power over her? Unless your last name is Pierce, you're lucky if Santana even considers you a friend."

Before anyone has a chance to respond, Santana walks up to the group with Ashley in her arms and Brittany by her side. "If you morons are done talking about me, we're gonna head out."

"Already?"

"It's bedtime for this one," she tells them, nodding her head to the sleeping girl resting on her shoulder. She sees Rachel starting to push herself up to be a good hostess, and immediately nudges her back down with her foot. "Stay there, Berry, we can show ourselves out. Thanks for having us or whatever."

"It was my pleasure," Rachel tells them, her usual peppiness gone, and her voice sounding monotone. "I am very happy that you made it and were here to celebrate the good times with our merry band of misfits and I wish you and your little family a good night."

"Riiighht," she drawls, sharing a look with Quinn and Mercedes before turning her attention away from the other brunette. "Enjoy your hangovers tomorrow, peasants."

Brittany smiles and waves at her friends. "Bye guys, see you on Monday."

"We'll talk about that thing then, okay?"

Santana nods at Mercedes and says her goodbyes again, and the trio make their way through the Berry house to Santana's car. Brittany gets into the passenger seat and twists around to watch her girlfriend buckling her sleeping sister in. "What are you gonna talk to Mercedes about on Monday?"

"Something about her brother." Santana manages to get Ashley upright and fastened into her seat, so she shuts the back door and quickly slips into the drivers seat to face the older blonde. "He's apparently the same age as Ash, and she and Quinn think they'd get along."

"Aww," Brittany gushes, so happy to hear about the mere possibility of her sister getting a new friend. "We'll have to set that up. She really needs some friends, San. It's really not fair that she has to hang out with us all the time. We're almost done high school, what's she gonna do when we're not here anymore?"

"I know, Britts." She looks into the rear view mirror and watches Ashley sleeping in the back with a sad smile. "We'll talk to Mercedes at school on Monday and look into it. He's related to Wheezy, he can't be too bad, right?"

Brittany nods her head. "Mercedes is super cool. I bet her brother would make a great Santana."

"What?"

"You know, he could be the awesomest best friend ever," she explains likes it's obvious. "That will protect Ashley against the mean kids at school, and help her with her homework and make her feel super smart. Like you've always done for me, and for her."

"Britt." Santana reaches over to squeeze her girlfriend's hand, just wanting to touch her.

"Everyone should have their own Santana," the blonde states earnestly. "You've been a great one for her so far, and I don't mind sharing you with her, but I worry what might happen when we're not here. So I really want her to have someone her own age to do all that stuff. I never would've made it here without you."

Santana tugs on the hand in her's, pulling Brittany closer, so that their faces are barely a breath apart. "You would have," she swears against her lips. She runs a hand along the back of Brittany's neck, playing with the collar of her shirt. "You are the sweetest person in the world."

"I beg to differ," she whispers back, a smile playing on her lips.

"And I hope you know that I will always be your Santana," she promises, not being able to stop herself from softly pressing a kiss to Brittany's lips. "And that I would never ever leave Ashley alone here without someone to take care of her. We'll figure it out, B, I promise. She'll be okay. I'll make sure of it."

"I love you."

"I love you, too." And with one more kiss, Santana starts the car and heads in the direction of home.

 


	8. Plans

"You got yours?"

Brittany bites her lip nervously and nods from her spot in the middle of her bed, the envelope laid out in front of her, unopened. Santana quickly shuts Brittany's bedroom door and makes her way over to her girlfriend's bed. She hesitates for a moment before crawling onto it, copying the blonde and sitting cross legged across from her.

"Did you show your mom?"

The blonde shakes her head. "I texted you as soon as I got the mail. I think my mom is picking up Ashley and Jacks from school, so she didn't have time to check it yet. Your mom?"

"I don't think so," the brunette answers, playing with the edges of her envelope. "All the mail was on the kitchen counter, but it was at the bottom of the pile, I don't think she went through it yet."

Brittany nods, and her eyes drift towards her girlfriend's hands. Her stomach drops. "Oh."

Santana's head snaps up. "What?"

"Yours is bigger," Brittany points out in a soft voice, her shoulders deflating in defeat.

The other girl lets the package drop onto the bed, and the contrast in size between her's and Brittany's is glaringly obvious. A feeling of dread washes over her, but she tries her best to ignore it. "Hey, it doesn't mean anything. It could be because, um, because…"

"San, it's okay," Brittany cuts her off, the pointless reassurance just making it worse. "They're both from Louisville. Mine is small, yours is big. Even I know what that means."

"Britts…"

The blonde shakes her head, fighting the lump in her throat. She grabs the bigger envelope and hands it to her girlfriend. "Open it."

"I can just wait until later," Santana insists, feeling awful about the idea of opening it in front of Brittany if they weren't getting the same answer. She tries to throw the package to the side, but Brittany grabs it before she can.

"Open it," she repeats, shoving it into Santana's hands. "Or I will."

Santana sighs, and takes the envelope, ripping the top open. She glances at Brittany to make sure she still wants her to do this, then pulls out the contents. Finding the letter she's looking for, she takes a breath and unfolds it, reading over the words on the page.

"So?"

"I got in," Santana admits, folding the page up and tucking it under her leg. She honestly has no idea what to feel about it. She just got a full ride scholarship to a great school, but the idea of going there without Brittany pretty much sucks any enjoyment out of it.

Brittany doesn't even have to pretend to be happy for her girlfriend. "San, that's awesome!"

"No, it's not," Santana grumbles. "Not if you didn't get in, too."

The girls have always planned on going to college together, and once they got to high school and joined the Cheerios, that college became The University of Louisville. It had the best cheerleading squad in the country. It's not exactly what they want to do the rest of their lives, but they're really good at it, and Sue had connections there, and well, it was kind of an unspoken assumption that Brittany's best shot of getting into college was on an athletic scholarship, so that's what the plan had become. But the plan doesn't work if only one of them gets accepted.

"I'm sorry," Brittany replies, thinking she let Santana down.

"No, no, Britt," she rushes to reassure, reaching for the other girl's hand. She tugs on it until Brittany looks up at her. "I'm not mad at you. I know how hard you've worked towards this. I could never be mad at you because of this. I'm pissed at that damn school. If they knew how hard you worked to get your grades up…"

Brittany shrugs, used to the rejection. She had tried to be positive, but she figured that even with Sue's letter of recommendation it was a long shot. Santana has been helping her a lot with her homework and studying this year, but she can't take her tests for her. She figures she's lucky enough she's graduating at all. "Not hard enough, apparently."

"You worked your ass of, babe," Santana argues, getting more and more upset about this as they continue to talk. She doesn't realize she's just making Brittany feel worse.

"I guess even when I try my hardest, I'm still not smart enough."

"Baby…"

"No, San, it's okay," Brittany cuts her off, knowing what she's going to say. She's heard it all before. And even though her girlfriend can usually cheer her up with a pep talk, this failure feels too big for a simple speech to fix. Seeing the helpless look on Santana's face, the blonde knows she can't dwell on it right now. "I knew it was a really long shot, anyway. We'll figure something else out. Maybe I can get a job. I think they have a Perdue factory down there. Chickens are kind of cool, I guess."

Santana knows that this is absolutely not okay. Her heart is breaking for Brittany and for herself, and she can feel fear starting to creep up on her as questions about what happens now start to brew up inside of her. This was the plan, it was their _only_ plan. She didn't have a plan that involved them being separated next year. That wasn't the _plan_. She's starting to freak out, but one look at Brittany's face tells her that she can't do it. Brittany is too disappointed and too self conscious to have this conversation right now, so instead, she puts on a brave face and plays along. "Yeah, I think they do, Britts. I think I read that somewhere."

 

Santana is just about to send Brittany a text when she hears her come bursting through the front door. She knows it's her girlfriend because nobody else in the world has the right to enter the Lopez house without invitation. The brunette is already halfway to the stairs before the blonde calls up to her.

Brittany sounds excited, which is puzzling since she was obviously bummed about her acceptance letter when Santana left the Pierce's earlier. They had avoided the topic for the rest of the afternoon, but when Brittany's parents came home, she asked if her girlfriend wouldn't mind letting her tell them herself. She's pretty sure it's because Brittany thinks she's disappointed or angry with her, and the idea that Brittany might think that destroys her, but she didn't want to make it harder for the girl than needed. The blonde had promised to call when she was done, so she's a little surprised to hear Brittany coming through her door with no warning, especially sounding excited.

"Brittany, what on earth is going on?" Mrs. Lopez asks, walking out of the kitchen just as Santana is coming down the stairs.

The blonde doesn't want to be rude to Mrs. Lopez, but she turns to face her girlfriend when she answers the question. "I got in!"

"What?"

"I got in!"

Santana stops on the last step and grabs the paper Brittany is shoving in her direction to read over. "But I though the envelope…"

"Me, too," Brittany explains, bouncing on the heels of her feet. "But my mom actually opened it and read the letter, and I got in! Well, kind of. On the condition that I retake a few classes to bring my grades up, I can start in January, on full scholarship."

"Britt!" Santana wastes no time and jumps into Brittany's arms, knowing her girlfriend will catch her. The blonde does catch her, but can't hold her balance and the girls tumble to the floor in a fit of giggles.

Mrs. Lopez watches them with a smile and shakes her head, more than used to their antics. She would normally leave them alone, but she really wants to hear more about Brittany's letter. She notices her daughter has dropped it in all the excitement, and she bends down to pick it up while the girls celebrate.

"Wait, wait," Santana gasps out after a moment, pulling away from Brittany as her words begin to fully register. "What do you mean January? Can't you just take the classes during the summer and start in September with me?"

Brittany's smile only falters a little bit at the question. "They want me to improve three grades: English, Math and Bio. My parents checked, and with the way they schedule summer school, I can't take all three classes in one summer." Santana nods, vaguely remembering when Puck had to take a summer course and was in school almost all day long for the first month of summer. "And it seems silly to waste our summer together if I'd still have to be at McKinley for a semester anyway, so we decided that I'd just take the classes first semester, do better this time, and then start my freshmen year in January."

"But then when do you do your second semester of freshmen year?"

Brittany scrunches up her nose at the thought. "I'd have to do it in the summer with the other students that start in the new year."

"So we'd still have to be apart for a semester?" Santana asks, deflating a little bit at the thought. She pulls away to get off Brittany, letting the blonde sit up.

Brittany immediately follows her girlfriend, grabbing a hold of her hands. "It's just a couple of months. And Louisville isn't that far away, that's one of the reasons we picked it, remember? So we could still come home every other weekend to see Ash? So you can still do that, or I could visit you? And there's Thanksgiving break, and then Christmas. It's not really that long."

"Longest we've ever been apart," the brunette pouts, pulling away and folding her arms across her chest in an attempt to look as childish as possible. She whips her head around to glare at her mother when she hears her laughing.

"How ever will you survive?"

Brittany smiles at the teasing, but knows not to laugh. "San, come on." Her girlfriend turns back to look at her. "I know it's not perfect, but it's better than me not getting in at all, right?"

Santana reluctantly nods because it's true. Just ten minutes ago, she thought Brittany had been flat out rejected, and had no idea how they were ever going to make it work. But now, at least they had a plan. It wasn't their original plan, but it was the next best thing.

 

"I wish all the cheerleaders could live in a house together or something," Santana complains, clicking through the pictures of dorm rooms the school offers. The girls are sitting in Brittany's room a few days later, looking up anything they can find about the University of Louisville.

"Like a sorority?"

"Yeah."

Brittany laughs at the idea. "You'd hate that."

"I would not," Santana protests. "Not if I got my own room."

"Can you imagine living in a big house with all the Cheerios?"

Santana thinks about that and immediately shakes her head. "Okay, no, that'd be hell. I think I'd rather live with the glee club."

"That'd be so awesome," Brittany exclaims, just imagining all the fun their group of friends could get up to living together. "It sucks that we'll all be separated next year."

"You've still got a bit longer," the brunette points out.

Brittany sighs, and cuddles into Santana's side. "I know, but it won't be the same. Not without you. Or Mercedes, or Quinn. Or even Rachel. Can you imagine glee club without Rachel?"

"Yeah, it'll be awesome."

"But who will sing everything?"

"Blaine Warbler, of course," she answers, trying to keep the sneer out of her voice. She likes the guy okay, but she's still kind of bitter about how many solos the kid gets after just joining and how everyone kisses his ass like his voice is anything more than mediocre.

Brittany makes a face, thinking along the same lines. "That doesn't make me feel better. And there'll be a bunch of new people."

"Aw, it'll be okay, Britts," Santana promises, throwing an arm around her shoulders to comfort her girlfriend. "It'll just be a couple months, and then you can come join me in Louisville, and I'll introduce you to all the cool new people I've met, and they'll love you, and before you know it, we'll have a whole new group of friends to judge and feel superior around."

"That's true." She tries not to think about how it'll feel to know Santana is out making friends without her. They've been a package deal for so long, she doesn't think Santana has ever had friends she wasn't friends with too. Just the idea of meeting 'Santana's friends' is so weird to her. "Hopefully your roommate will be nice."

Santana groans. "I wish my mom would spring for a single dorm. I mean, I'm on full scholarship, you'd think she could afford it."

"She probably knows you'll never talk to anyone if you're not forced into a confided space with them."

Santana is about to protest when she hears her name being called from the doorway. They look up to find Ashley standing at the entrance to Brittany's room, wringing her hands together.

"Hey, squirt," Santana greets her with a smile. "What's up?"

Ashley toes the carpet, feeling shy around the girl for the first time a long time. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," the brunette answers without a thought. She shares a look with Brittany, both noticing the girl's strange behavior. "What are you doing all the way over there? Get in here." The tiny blonde makes her way into the room and climbs up onto the bed, sitting across from the couple on the other side. "What can we do for you, missy?"

"I was over at Jackson's house after school," she begins, crossing her legs underneath her. "And he said he was sad because after Cedes finishes high school this year, she's moving away from home, because that's what big kids do when they get older. And he asked if you guys were leaving too, and I didn't know, so are you?"

Santana feels a lump start to form in her throat at the question, and the tremble in the little girl's voice as she asks it. One look at Brittany tells her that she's having the same problem. They've been dreading having this conversation. With a sigh, she closes the laptop and places it on the bedside table before patting her lap. "Come here."

Ashley quickly moves up to sit in the girl's lap, twisting her body to the side so that she can see both of them. As soon as she sees the look on her sister's face, she knows the answer to her question. "You are, aren't you?"

"We are," Santana confirms, wrapping her arms around the tiny body in her lap.

"I'll be around for a bit longer," Brittany informs her, hoping it might cheer her up a bit. She knows it won't though. Ashley loves her, but Santana is her hero, and Brittany knows her sister will miss her more than anything. "But then I'll be going to live with Santana, too."

"How far away are you moving?" she asks in small voice, scared of the answer.

"It's just a few hours away," Santana promises, rubbing a hand up and down her arm, hoping to comfort her. "And we've already decided to come home every other weekend, just to see you."

That does make Ashley feel a little bit better, but she's still sad because it won't be the same. "But I get to see you _everyday_ now."

"I know, sweetie," Santana agrees with a sigh. Just when she was thinking she'd be able to survive a couple months without Brittany, Ashley had to come and remind her that she has two blondes she'll miss terribly. "You have no idea how much I'm gonna miss you."

"Who'll play with me? And help me with my homework?"

"You know Jacks will," Santana reminds her, thanking her lucky stars for the hundredth time that the two of them ended up getting along so well. "And hopefully you guys will be in the same class next year, and you can do your homework together."

"I'll still be here for a little while," Brittany jumps in, poking her sister in the stomach when she starts to pout. "And we're gonna talk on the phone and Skype a lot, and I'll even share her if you're good."

Ashley looks up at her sister with pleading eyes and holds out her pinky. "You promise?"

"I _promise_ ," the older girl assures, hooking her pinky around Ashley's to seal the deal.

Santana watches the interaction and falls more in love with both girls. Knowing Ashley will miss her that much, and seeing Brittany being sweet enough to promise to share the limited time they'll have together, fills her with so much affection for both blondes that she thinks she might burst. She has no idea how she got so lucky to be so loved by these two wonderful girls, or how she'll be able to handle being away from them.

She doesn't realize she's started to cry until she feels Ashley wiping a tear away with her little hand. "Don't be sad, Tana. I'll be okay."

Brittany's stomach flips as she watches Santana give her sister a teary smile, before burying her face in her soft hair. She realizes then just how much harder Santana is going to have it than she is. She'll be in a whole new place, and won't know anyone, and missing her two favorite people. She makes a promise to herself that she's going to make this whole transition as easy as possible, for all three of them. She doesn't know how yet, but she's gonna take care of her girl.

"Come on, no more crying," she declares, rubbing her girlfriend's back, hoping to coax her out of the bear hug she currently has Ashley in. She waits until both girls are looking at her before continuing. "We've still got the rest of the school year and all summer to hang out and have fun, let's try not to think about it too much, okay? Let's just enjoy it."

Santana smiles at her girlfriend, and leans over to kiss her sweetly. "Thank you." Brittany hums against her lips, pressing against her again for another one.

"I won't miss this," Ashley complains, trying to scramble off Santana's lap, not wanting to be so close to them when they're doing that. Both girls laugh into their kiss before pulling away and turning on the little girl. They pin her to the bed and start tickling her, smothering her in obnoxious raspberry kisses as she squeals in delight.


	9. Christmas Break

"You're sure she doesn't know?" Santana asks the girl on her computer screen.

Brittany immediately nods her head. "She has no idea. I told her you had a final on Christmas Eve Day, so she doesn't think you're coming home until next week."

"Okay, good."

"She was really sad," the blonde notes, remembering the way her sister's lip started to tremble when she told her she had to wait even longer to see Santana. "She almost cried."

Santana knows she should probably feel bad for almost making a little girl cry, but she can't lie and say it doesn't give her an ego boost to know she's missed that much. Not that she didn't already know that. "Remind me to get her ice cream tomorrow night to make up for it then."

"Only if you get me some, too."

"Of course," Santana smiles at her, wishing more than anything she could kiss her girlfriend right now.

Brittany is just about to voice that same thought when she hears the front door open and her sister's voice drift through the house. "Oh, she's back, I should go. But you'll be home before I get out of school, right?"

"Planning on it," Santana answers. "I'm leaving early and traffic shouldn't be too bad. But I'll text you when I get into Lima."

"I can't wait to see you," the blonde gushes, holding a hand over her heart. "I'm totally going to jump you on sight, so I hope your cheerleading practices have made you stronger."

Santana laughs and holds up an arm, flexing for her girlfriend. "I'm ready for you."

Brittany wiggles her eyebrows and is just about to reply with something dirty when she remembers Santana's roommate is in the room, and they've already traumatized her enough with their Skype activities this semester. "I hear footsteps on the stairs, so I gotta go, but I love you and can't wait to get my sweet lady kisses on tomorrow."

"I love you, too, Britt-Britt." She's just able to blow Brittany a kiss when the blonde is disconnected. She stares at her screen with a goofy smile on her face until her roommate interrupts her.

"You're so pathetic," she teases, ripping a page out of her open notebook and crumpling it up to throw at her friend.

Santana manages to avoid getting hit and just smirks at her. "You're just jealous because you don't have a gorgeous, adorable and _flexible_ girlfriend to go home to."

"You know me so well," Taylor replies, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever, you don't have a guy, either."

"That's what you think."

Santana groans, remembering what a crying mess her friend was when she came back from Thanksgiving break after hooking up her ex while she was home. "Do not hook up with him again, okay? Britt's coming back with me, remember? I'm not gonna have time to take care of your heartbroken ass."

"Yeah, yeah, I promise," Taylor says, holding up her hands in surrender. "I've learned my lesson. But speaking of Brittany, we still need to discuss some ground rules for how this is going to work. Judging by how you two are when she comes to visit, you're going to scar me for life within a week."

"You liked it," Santana teases, snickering when she remembers the look on Taylor's face when she walked in on her and Brittany heading to third base. Taylor was mortified, but her and Brittany just laughed it off. After being caught in the act as much as they've been, it loses it's effect. "But Britt might be getting a single, so we might not have that problem. We'll see."

"Let's pray," the other girl hopes, though she thinks she'd probably start to miss her roommate if she was gone so much. They get along pretty well, as far as roommates go. "You know I like Brittany, but you guys were bad enough on weekends. I don't think I can deal with that all semester."

Santana just smirks, already planning on being as obnoxiously in love as possible around her friend now.

 

Brittany is sitting beside Marley in the choir room, listening to Blaine whine about his breakup with Kurt when she feels her phone vibrate with a new text.

_In Lima, at the intersection outside of Breadstix. Can't wait to kiss your face._

"Is that Santana?" Marley asks, interrupting Blaine when she sees the blonde smiling at her phone.

Brittany beams up at her friends. "Yeah, she's in Lima."

"Merry Christmas to you," Blaine mumbles, his jealousy obvious.

"I know, right?" Brittany can't help but start bouncing in her seat in excitement. She looks at the clock and for the first time in as long as she can remember, she really wishes she could leave glee early.

_Come pick me up? I want to see you asap._

_Ofc.  
_

Brittany suddenly finds Christmas songs really annoying, because they seem to last forever and they're currently standing in the way of her reunion with her girlfriend. Finally, Joe finishes his boring song that she wasn't really paying attention to and Finn dismisses them for the afternoon. Nobody even bothers trying to say anything to her and she dashes out of the room, running towards the doors she knows Santana will be waiting outside.

As promised, the second Brittany sees her girlfriend, she leaps into her arms to crush her in a bear hug. "You're here!"

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be." Santana buries her face in crook of Brittany's neck, while her arms squeeze Brittany against her as hard as she can. "God, I've missed you so much, B."

"Me too," the blonde whispers, trying to hold Santana tighter, but finding it's impossible. "You have no idea how much."

"I think I have a good idea."

Brittany pulls away just enough to press their lips together for their first kiss in a month, and just like that, they both feel whole again.

 

Ashley spots Santana's car before she spots her, but when she finally does, her reaction rivals her sister's. " _Santana_!"

Santana turns away from her conversation with Mrs. Jones just in time to catch the tiny blonde that throws herself at her. She's gotten taller since she's been gone, but she can still carry her. She doesn't even want to imagine the day when she can't. "Hey, babycakes! Surprised to see me?"

"Britt said you weren't coming until next week!"

"I lied," Brittany informs her with a smile, happy to see the two of them reunited. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"I'm surprised," the little girl giggles, planting a kiss on Santana's cheek before she's placed back on her feet.

Before she can say anything, she hears Jackson calling her name as he joins the group. She turns to see him walking towards her, holding her forgotten backpack in his hand. "You dropped this."

"Hey, Jacks," Santana greets the boys, holding up her hand to high five him. "You still taking good care of my girl?"

The boy blushes, but nods his head, earning a laugh from his mother, who's there to pick the two of them up. "Well, Santana, it was so nice to you. I hope you'll all stop by for dinner sometime over the break. I know Mercy would love to see you. Quinn, too. Her mother is on some cruise so she's staying with us for the holidays. You can invite your parents, we'll make a party of it."

"That sounds great," she responds, her mouth practically watering at the idea of Mrs. Jones' cooking. "I'm sure we'll see you or Mercedes again soon, so we'll make plans later."

"Okay, you three have a good night then." The girls wave goodbye to the Joneses as Santana opens the back door to her car.

"Get in, missy," she instructs, tossing Ashley's bag inside and waving her hand to get the girl to follow. "We've got ice cream to get."

Ashley's eyes light up and she gives Santana another hug. "I'm so glad you're back."

"I'm starting to think she just likes me for the ice cream," she remarks to Brittany as the little girl gets into the back seat.

"Why do you think _I'm_ still dating you?" the blonde teases. She wants to kiss the pout off the brunette's lips, but knows doing it in front of Ashley's school isn't the best idea. People are just starting to get over all the drama from last year. Instead, she playfully pulls at the girl's bottom, and slips passed her to get into the passenger side door.

Santana stands there for a moment, thinking about how good it is to be home.

 

Santana doesn't discover the flaw in her plan until Monday, as she sits alone in her room while Brittany and Ashley are both in school. They still have almost another week of classes before they get off for Christmas break, and she's got nothing to do.

She's just about to resort to texting Taylor to make sure she got home safely when she gets a text from Mercedes, asking if she wants to meet her and Quinn for lunch at the Lima Bean. She immediately accepts and rushes out the door.

The streets of Lima are pretty deserted in the middle of a school day, and she gets over there in record time. She spots them at a corner table and joins them. "Hello, ladies."

"Satan," Mercedes addresses her with a warm smile, even standing up to give the girl a hug in greeting. Quinn does the same, and soon the three girls are sitting down and updating each other on school, work and their love lives (Quinn likes a guy in her Psychology class, and Mercedes has been single since breaking up with Sam when he moved back home to be with his parents), which brings the topic to Brittany, as usual when it comes to Santana.

"Are they doing anything special for her last week?" Quinn asks, taking a sip of her coffee.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, remember our last week?" she comments, looking to Mercedes as well. "We all sang to each other and everyone was all emotional? Brittany was kind of in the middle, if I remember correctly. She was graduating, but wasn't leaving, so she was kind of in limbo, didn't really get to appreciate all the fan fair and hysterics."

Santana's been so focused on the fact that Brittany's about to start college soon, that she hasn't given much thought to the fact that she's also finishing high school. And that because she's doing it in the middle of the year, she's not really going to get to do all the usual nostalgic celebrating with her friends stuff that comes with the end of high school. Manboobs probably isn't even going to do anything special on her last day of Glee.

"I never thought of that," Mercedes remarks, her thoughts running along the same lines as Santana's. "That kind of sucks. I'm sure Britt loves that kinda stuff."

"She does," she replies, the wheels in her head already turning. "Okay, well, this is unacceptable, so we're gonna have to do something about it."

"We are, are we?"

Santana raises a challenging eyebrow at her friends. "Don't you think Brittany deserves to feel special on her last day of high school? Don't you think she should get to celebrate it with her friends like we did? Is that not something my girlfriend deserves?"

"You're not as scary as you think you are," Quinn informs her, rolling her eyes. She glances at Mercedes and sees her biting her lip. "But it seems your guilt trip worked on this one, so I guess we're in. What's the plan?"

Santana sends the blonde a smug smile. "Not sure yet, but I'll be sure to inform you of it when it comes to me."

"We'll be waiting by the phone."

They don't have to wait long, because the perfect idea comes to Santana the next night, when everyone forces her and Mercedes to perform their version of River Deep, Mountain High at the Jones' dinner party. She watches Brittany's eyes follow her, the way she cheers them on from the couch, chanting just a little bit louder than everyone else, just like always. As soon as the song is done, she drags Quinn and Mercedes out of the room and into the hallway to tell them what's gonna go down and what she needs them to do.

 

The next day she goes to the choir room during classes to see Finn about her plan.

"Imma need you to give me about ten minutes of glee time tomorrow," she informs him, strolling right into his office like she owns the place.

"Santana?" he questions, as if not believing his eyes. She doesn't know why though, she's been back home to visit more often than their other friends, so it's not really much of a surprise that she'd be around. But Finn's a moron, so she's not surprised. "What are you doing here?"

He stands up and when he looks like he's about to try to hug her, she quickly holds up her hands to stop him. "No, thank you, Finnocence. I'm here to talk business. It's Brittany's last day of high school tomorrow, and it's been brought to my attention that it will likely pass without much fan fair and that's not happening on my watch. So like I said, give me ten minutes."

"Okay," he answers, not quite sure he totally follows what's going on. "At the beginning or the end?"

Santana thinks about it. "End. And you're going to assign everyone to sing a song dedicated to Britt."

"Santana, I've already given this week's assignment," he informs her, straightening out his shirt to seem more mature. She raises a challenging eyebrow at him. "It's Christmas songs, and everyone has already been working on them."

"You've been doing those since last week." She knows because Brittany gave her a sneak preview of her performance of Britney Spears' My Only Wish This Year (it was awesome, if she does say so herself). "It's only the middle of the day. Send out a mass text, call an emergency meeting, I don't care. Just get it done and don't let Brittany find out. Think you can handle that, Gassy Green Giant?"

"Uh," he drawls out, eyes darting to the side as he thinks it over. When he looks back at her, she's giving him that scary look she's so good at, so he quickly agrees. "Yeah, sure, I got it."

"Sure you do." With a scoff, she spins on her heel and storms out of the room, muttering curses in Spanish about how Finn's incompetence is making Mr. Schuester look like he actually deserved that Teacher of the Year award. Knowing he can't be trusted to handle this, she pulls out her phone and dials the first appropriate name she scrolls by. "Wheels, I need you to do something for me. Well, for Brittany."

 

Brittany walks into the choir room the next day expecting to spend her last meeting listening to Christmas songs. What she doesn't expect is to find all the seats filled, a mix of current and past members of New Directions, all smiling at her. She spots Mercedes and Quinn sitting in the front beside Artie, Mike and Puck sitting with Blaine in the back, and Kurt and Rachel on the opposite end. Even Mr. Schue is standing next to Finn at the front of the room.

She's scanning the crowd for Santana when her girlfriend sneaks up behind to give her a hug. "Surprise," she whispers to her, giving her waist a squeeze.

"What's going on?" the blonde asks, craning her neck to look at Santana and is met with a beaming smile.

"It's your last day," Santana reminds her, untangling her arms from around her waist and taking a hold of her hand. She gently leads her over to one of the two empty seats in the first row beside Mercedes, and guides her into it before walking over to stand in front of the group. "Okay, listen up. As you all know by now, today is Brittany's last day as a member of New Directions, before she comes to join me in Louisville and that's a big damn deal!" Everyone claps and cheers for her, causing her cheeks to flush. "So, Britts, I called some old friends and luckily everyone was home for Christmas break, so I was able to get the gang together so we can all give you the send off you deserve."

Everyone cheers again and Santana takes her seat beside Brittany, who can't resist giving her a huge kiss in gratitude. They smile at each other like huge dorks for a moment, until Mr. Schue claps his hands a couple times to get everyone's attention. It isn't until then that Brittany notices her name is written on the white board behind him. "Well, Brittany, like Santana said, today is going to be all about you. And I believe everyone has prepared a song to sing just for you."

"Since it was such short notice," Finn continues, confused by the glare Santana is sending him. "It's gonna be kind of a best of New Directions thing, and everyone is gonna sing something they've performed before. So I hope that's okay."

"That sounds totally cool!" She kind of likes that better actually, because it makes her think of all the good times she's had with them over the years. She threads her fingers through Santana's and rests her head on her shoulder, ready for the show.

Artie and Mike start off with PYT (which, given the original use of the song, they cleared with Santana first, who gave them the go ahead as long as Artie behaved himself), and the rest followed with repeat performances of their own. Even Mr. Schue gave an encore of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Brittany's favorite, of course, was Rachel's completed version of My Headhand.

That is, until Santana gets up from her seat beside her and returns to her spot in the middle of the room for the final performance. Brittany notices her clutched hands in front of her, a sure sign that Santana's nervous. That confuses Brittany, since Santana is never nervous for regular choir room performances.

"Um, so, I asked if I could go last because I have two songs I want to perform." Santana takes a deep breath and looks directly at Brittany, trying to ignore all the other eyes on her. "A couple years ago, when I was still just a mean, scared, closeted little girl, I brought you into this room to sing you a song. A song that I spent the entire previous night listening to and crying, because it summed up my feelings for you perfectly." She can feel the surprise from some people, but she ignores it and forges on, continuing to only focus on Brittany's eyes, which are already shining with unshed tears. "When I was done, you asked why I couldn't sing it in front of everyone and I said that I wasn't ready for that kind of public announcement. But, today, in front of our old friends and your new ones, I _am_ ready. I'm ready to do something I should've done a long time ago."

Brittany sits up straighter in chair, and gives Santana a watery smile, hoping it will give her a little bit of extra courage. Soon, Brad begins to play, and the opening chords of Songbird fill the room. Santana takes another deep breath and Brittany is transported back to Junior year. As she listens to Santana sing and pour all of her feelings out for the whole room to hear, she feels everything she felt back then, tenfold.

_And the songbirds keep singing_   
_Like they know the score._   
_And I love you, I love you, I love you,_   
_Like never before._

The second the last note leaves Santana's lips, Brittany is out of her chair and crushing Santana in a hug. She can hear everyone clapping extra loudly behind her, but all of her attention is on her girlfriend. After a moment, she pulls back and cups Santana's blushing cheeks. "I love you so much. More than anything."

"I love you, too," Santana replies quietly, bringing their lips together in a soft kiss. They wipe each other's tears with a laugh before turning back towards the crowd. Brittany starts to move back to her seat, remembering Santana said she had two songs to sing, but is stopped with a hand squeeze. "Wait. I actually need you for this one."

"What?"

"Well, that same year, when I was meaner, more scared and even further in the closet, you asked me to sing a duet with you." She lets out a humorless laugh, recalling the vicious words she threw at Brittany that afternoon. "Of course, I flipped out, said some horrible things to you, and ran to Mercedes to ask her to be my partner instead." Brittany's eyes widen in realization, that afternoon playing in her head as well. "And even though that duet was epic, I should've sang with you. I know we've sung together since, but I know how much that day hurt you." She recalls the day during their Spanish assignment, when Ashley came to get her and Brittany shared her feelings of neglect with her. "And I want to make it up to you. I want the last song we ever sing in glee club to be a song we should've sang years ago. I miss this place so much and I know you will, too. It's where we fell in love, and I can't think of a more fitting way to end our time here than to come full circle, in a way."

Brittany's lip quivers as she tries to fight against the lump forming in her throat. "San…"

"What do you say? You remember the song?"

"Of course I do."

"And you'll sing with me?"

"What do you think?"

Smiling at each other, they link their hands and face their friends, who are all giving them encouraging grins, waiting. When they start singing Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window, they can't help but laugh along with the others at the cheesiness.

Turns out Brittany's favorite day of glee club ends up being her last one.

 

In Christmas Eve tradition, Santana spends the night surrounded by her girls. She's got Brittany leaning into one side, and Ashley on the other. Even Lord Tubbington is curled up and sleeping on her lap.

"He missed you," Ashley comments, raising a hand and running it down the cat's back. He did. Almost anytime Santana was on Skype, he'd find his way towards the laptop and try to pop onto the screen.

Santana looks down at the fur ball on her lap and smiles. "Yeah, I might have missed him too. Maybe."

"I don't know what he's gonna do when we're both gone," Brittany coos, scratching behind his ear like he likes.

"Probably wander around the house, meowing hopelessly, looking for his mommy and Auntie Tana," Santana muses, jokingly. "There'll be nobody to sneak extra food in his bowl or play with him in the backyard. He'll have to find someone else's bed to sleep on at night. He's gonna be lost without us." Suddenly, they hear a sniffle and then see a blur run past them. "Ash, what…"

"I think she's Lord Tubbington."

Santana furrows her brow and looks down at her girlfriend. "Huh?"

"What you were saying," Brittany explains, shifting away from Santana's side to get a better look at her. "About Tubbs missing us and being lost without us… Ashley probably feels the same way."

"Oh." Santana runs over what she just said in her head and cringes. " _Oh_. Right, of course, that was kind of shitty of me, huh?"

"You didn't mean to," the blonde tries to assure her. "It's just, she's really missed you. I know you know that, but you haven't seen just how much. And with me leaving now, too…"

"Yeah," she sighs, running a hand over her face. "Yeah, you're right." She looks at her girlfriend and sighs again. She gently shifts Lord Tubbington to Brittany's lap and stands up. "I should go talk to her."

Brittany nods and accepts the kiss on the cheek, playfully slapping Santana on the ass as she passes. "Good luck."

Santana climbs the stairs and finds Ashley's bedroom door closed. Taking a deep breath, she knocks on the door, hoping for a reply. When she gets nothing, she deflates. "Ash, come on, can I please come in?"

"I don't wanna talk," comes her muffled reply through the door.

"Ash, please," she tries again. She leans her forehead against the door and waits. "Come on, you don't wanna start Christmas mad at me, do you?"

She hears feet shuffling on the other side of the door, and then Ashley's tear stained face comes into view. The sight breaks her heart. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just sad." She sounds so much like her sister Santana doesn't know what to do with herself.

"Can I come in? And we can talk about it?" Ashley nods, and moves aside, letting the older girl into her room. Santana sits down on the bed, waiting for the blonde to join her. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"I'm just sad because you're both gonna leave soon," she explains, roughly wiping at her eyes. "I was trying to ignore it so I could enjoy Christmas, but…"

"I had to open my big mouth?"

Ashley giggles a little, but it comes out as more of a hiccup. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry, kiddo," Santana apologizes, running a hand through her hair to soothe her. "I wasn't really thinking. I know it's gonna be really hard on you when we're both gone. We're kinda like a team, and now you won't have us. I know how much it sucks to be the one by yourself. I missed you guys so much when I was at school."

"You only missed Brittany," Ashley grumbles with a pout. "And now that she's gonna be with you, you'll never come visit me."

"Is that what this is about?" Ashley shrugs. Santana shakes her head and moves further onto the bed, pulling a reluctant Ashley up with her so that's she's seated on her lap. "Okay, yes, maybe I missed Britts the most, but she wasn't the only thing I missed. I missed my parents, I missed _your_ parents. I missed Tubbs, and even glee club. I missed _you_. You have no idea how much I missed you, Ash."

Ashley's not convinced. "No you didn't."

"I did too," she repeats, pulling the little girl tighter against her. "You know when I missed you the most? Every weekend when I'd wake up from my alarm clock, and not from some brat jumping on me. Or every time a Taylor Swift song came on and nobody was around to sing along obnoxiously." She can see the ghost of a smile making its way onto Ashley's lips for a moment. "I didn't have anyone to tuck in, or give piggyback rides to, or crawl into my lap when I was watching TV. Nobody distracted me when I was trying to study, or stole food off my plate, or begged me for ice cream."

"Why would you miss all that stuff?" Ashley wonders, making a face at the list Santana just made.

"Because I missed _you_ ," Santana insists, bringing her hand up to the blonde's face to wipe away the few remaining tears on her cheeks. "I miss everything about you, kiddo. And that's not going to change now that Brittany's with me. Brittany doesn't do those things. Well, maybe some of them, but you know what I mean. There are just some things only a little sister does, and you're the only little sister I've got."

Ashley studies Santana's face for a moment, before a smile slowly grows into a grin. "Really?"

"Duh."

"So, you'll still visit?"

"Of course," she promises, giving the girl's cheek a pinch. "We'll be here every other weekend, just like we promised. And we'll still Skype and talk on the phone. That's not gonna change. I wasn't just calling to talk to Britt."

Ashley nods and buries her head in the crook of Santana's neck. "I know. You wanted to talk to Tubby, too."

"That's right," Santana laughs, pressing a kiss to the little girl's forehead. "And hey, look at it this way; when we come back, I'll have more time to catch up with you, since I won't be making up for lost time with Britt. You'll see me so much you'll be sick of me."

"Never," Ashley promises, wrapping her arms around Santana's neck and giving her a big hug. "I'm sorry I was being a cry baby. I just missed you a lot, and now I'm gonna miss Brittany, too, and I'm gonna be really lonely."

Santana nods in sympathy. "I know, sweetie, but it'll be okay. We'll talk lots, and soccer will be starting soon, right? And you've got Jacks! And Tubbs! And I hear the PTA at your school is getting less uptight? I bet your bratty friends from school will be allowed to come over now that Britts and I will be gone. You won't be lonely at all. And when you are, just call. I'm sure one of us will be able to talk. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay," Santana echoes with a laugh. She tickles the girl's sides before throwing her over her shoulder to carry her towards the door. "Let's get back to our movie marathon before Britt falls asleep down there and scares Santa."

 

The next morning when Ashley opens her gift from Santana and finds multiple tickets to the Louisville Zoo and some place called Bluegrass, she's confused. She looks over to where Santana is cuddled up on the couch with her sister watching her, and gives her a questioning look.

"Bluegrass is this indoor go-carting place, you'll love it," Santana explains with an excited smile. "And I figured animals is a safe bet with any Pierce." Brittany and her parents voice their agreement with that statement. Ashley still looks confused and Santana's smile grows. "For when you come visit us on weekends, Ash."

Ashley's eyes widen and she immediately looks towards her parents for confirmation, and the two of them nod. "We've all discussed it, and since Brittany is getting that single room after all, we think it will be okay for you to go visit once a month." Santana had called the Pierces to ask about the possibility before leaving for break, promising that she and Brittany would take great care of her while she was visiting. After she assured them that the dorms were all very safe and clean, and the particular building Brittany would be living in doesn't have many parties, they agreed. "Santana will come pick you up on Fridays, since she has the day off, and one of us will come pick you up on Sundays."

"Oh my God!" Ashley gives her parents a hug before she launches herself at the couple on the couch in excitement.

Santana laughs and ruffles the girl's hair. "Told you you'd be sick of me soon."

 

Christmas dinner is spent at the Pierces, with Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Lopez splitting the cooking duties. Since Santana wasn't invited to dinner at her abuela's house, her parents decided to join Santana at the Pierces and have a meal as a big family. It went off without a hitch, and Santana couldn't help but imagine the many holidays like it to come.

The week between Christmas and New Years is spent either lounging around the house, hanging out with old friends, or packing up Brittany's stuff to get her ready for school. There's also a lot of talks with parents about responsibility and grades and expectations.

They decided to have a quiet New Years Eve in since half of their friends have already gone back to their new homes, and any party in town is full of drunken high school kids. Ashley falls asleep between them before midnight, and when the ball drops, they kiss both her cheeks at the same time before sharing a kiss of their own.

When the girls leave to head back to school, Ashley is a trooper and only cries a little bit. She gives them each a big hug, and tells them she loves them and that she'll miss them. As she stands with her parents waving goodbye to the car that starts disappearing down the road, she knows she'll be okay, because Brittany and Santana would never really leave her behind.


	10. Losing It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is six years after the last, and hopefully I explained some changes well enough in the narrative.

"Make sure you feed him on time," Brittany instructs Mercedes as she shoves more clothes into her suitcase.

"Yeah, or else that huge fucker will get into the cupboards and help himself."

Brittany dismisses Santana's words with a wave of her hand and turns to her friend. "That was only one time, after she forgot to feed him."

"He could stand to miss a few meals," Santana mumbles, pushing off the door frame and moving out of the bedroom to look for something in the hall closet. "Did you pack the toiletry kit yet?"

"It's not in the suitcase yet, but I already got it," Brittany yells out to her, and motions for Mercedes to hand her the small bag that's beside her on the bed. "Can you get some extra tooth paste from the bathroom, though? I think I forgot to replace it last time."

Mercedes waits until Santana agrees before replying to Brittany. "Don't worry, Britt. I've looked after Lord Tubbington plenty of times, I have his schedule memorized. He'll be fine with me for the week."

"Yeah, I know," the blonde concedes, smiling gratefully. "I just worry, he's like our son, you know? But thank you so much for always doing this for us, we really appreciate it."

"Anything for my future in-laws," the other girl jokes, leaning back on the bed to watch Brittany pack. "Though according to Jackson, Ashley and that Tommy guy are getting kind of serious, so maybe not."

"Oh, don't remind me," Brittany groans, picking up Santana's favorite shirt and putting it into her suitcase. She's not sure why she's packing for the both of them, but she doesn't really mind. "That's going to be a disaster. Santana's gonna flip."

"What am I gonna flip about?" Santana questions, entering the bedroom just as her fiance is mentioning her. She watches as Brittany and Mercedes share a look and she lets out a huff, stomping her foot petulantly. "What am I gonna freak out about?"

Mercedes chuckles at her friend's pout and nods her head at Brittany. "Just tell her. It's better for her to know now and get it all out than to go in blind. You don't want your girl arrested for murder, do you?"

Brittany considers this for a moment and sighs. She drops the clothes in her hand and walks over to Santana and leads her over to the bed. "Okay, but you might want to sit down for this."

"You're scaring me, Britt." Santana sits down on the edge of the bed opposite Mercedes and runs through the different scenarios in her head. They were about to head back to Lima for the week to look after Ashley while the Pierces are away on a second honeymoon, and the possibilities were endless. Were her parents sick? Getting a divorce? Were Brittany's parents sick? Was her abuela okay? "What's going on?"

Brittany takes a deep breath and looks into Santana's eyes to break the news. "Ashley has a boyfriend."

"No, that's impossible," Santana answers immediately, shaking her head firmly. "She barley just turned sixteen, and I specifically told her that she wasn't allowed to date until she was thirty, so."

"Well, believe it or not, honey, but Ashley didn't take that literally," Brittany tells her with a sympathetic smile.

Santana studies Brittany for a moment before she realizes that she's serious. "How long has this been going on?"

"A couple of months," Mercedes answers before Brittany can. Santana whirls around and glares at her before turning back to the blonde for answers.

"How does Wheezy know, but I don't?"

"Jacks told her," Brittany supplies, narrowing her eyes at Mercedes for clearly getting some kind of amusement out of the situation. "I was going to tell you, but we decided it would be best to wait, for the sake of Tommy's safety."

Santana scoffs. "Tommy. Sounds like a little punk."

"Jackson says he's an asshole," Mercedes informs her before seeing the way Brittany is signaling for her to stop. "But I mean, he's so obviously in love with her, so you can't really trust the boy's opinion."

"Is he in glee club?" It's not like there weren't plenty of asshole males in glee when they were there, but it would make her feel a little bit better to know he was in New Directions with Ashley and Jackson.

Brittany hesitates a moment before answering, "No, he's on the football team."

"Of course he is," Santana huffs, and rolls her eyes. "Well, I hope he's wearing his pads when I see him, because he's gonna need them."

"Jackson will be so pleased," Mercedes laughs, wishing more than anything she was going back to Lima with them instead of being stuck in LA, babysitting what had to be the fattest cat in the world.

"You have to promise to be on your best behavior," Brittany tells her firmly, raising an eyebrow in challenge when she sees Santana is about to say something. "I don't know what this guy is really like, but Ashley seems to really like him, so you are going to get over your overprotective crap and give him a chance. For her."

It's obvious to the blonde that Santana is fuming, but she just nods. "I'll try."

 

And she really was planning on trying, until they walked into the Pierce house and found Tommy and Ashley making out on the couch. The Pierces had left earlier that morning, leaving Ashley alone in the house for a few hours until the older girls were set to arrive. Hours she clearly took advantage of.

"Remember when Ashley used to be the one to walk in on us making out?" Brittany quips, announcing their presence to her sister and hoping to get the scowl off of her fiancé's face.

"Brittany, Santana!" Ashley stutters out when she spots them at the doorway of the living room. She quickly pushes Tommy off of her and jumps to her feet. She tugs at her shirt self consciously for a moment, before her excitement at seeing the girls overshadows the awkwardness and she rushes towards them to give them each a big hug. "I can't believe you guys are here!"

"Yeah, clearly weren't expecting us," Santana mumbles, returning the girl's hug, but still glaring at the boy who's getting situated on the couch. Santana finally takes her eyes off Tommy to give Ashley a proper greeting. "Hey, babycakes, long time no see." She pulls back a bit to get a good look at the girl. "Jesus, you're getting tall. You better stop before you get taller than me."

Ashley beams, even though she's used to hearing the exact same thing everytime she sees Santana, which unfortunately, isn't as often since they had moved to LA after graduating from Louisville. "Won't be long, you're so damn short."

"Watch it, she's very sensitive about her height," Brittany teases, bumping Santana's shoulder playfully when she rolls her eyes.

"Right, sorry, of course." Ashley pulls away from Santana and turns back towards her boyfriend. She waves him over, and gives him a look, hoping he remembers he needs to be on his best behavior to try to impress Santana. "Uh, guys, this is my boyfriend Tommy. Babe, these are my sisters, Brittany and Santana."

Santana eyes the boy as he stands up, and he looks just how she imagined him, like every other douchey frat bro jock she went to school with. She looks unimpressed when he smiles and holds out his hand for a shake. "It's great to finally meet you ladies, I've heard a lot about you."

"Couldn't have heard that much," Santana starts, narrowing her eyes at the offered hand. "Or you'd know better than to risk sticking the hand I just saw you shoving up my girl Ashley's shirt anywhere near me."

Tommy immediately retracts his hand and shoves it into the pocket of his jeans. "Uh."

"San, I told you to be nice," Brittany scolds her, turning to Tommy and giving him an extra bright smile to make up for Santana's words. "Hi, Tommy, it's nice to meet you, too. I've heard a lot about you, as well."

"I haven't," Santana mumbles.

"Well, gee, I wonder why," Ashley shoots back with a roll of the eyes. "You're being so welcoming."

Santana scoffs. "Maybe I would've been if my first impression of him didn't involve him groping my baby sister in law."

"Oh, give me a break."

Before Ashley and Santana can continue their bantering, Brittany steps in to put a stop to it, as usual. "Okay, how about we get unpacked before you two get into it?" Ashley has only grown up to be even more like Santana over the years, despite the fact that Santana hasn't been around as much. And while she still loves it most days, sometimes it can be a pain in the ass.

The girls mock glare at each other before breaking out into matching smiles. "Britt's right. Come on, squirt, help me bring our shit upstairs, and then maybe I'll try this whole maturity thing with your boy toy."

"Can't wait to see what that looks like," Ashley laughs, allowing herself to be pulled out of the room, leaving her sister and boyfriend behind.

"Sorry about her," Brittany tells him, offering him another smile. "She's just a little protective of Ashley."

Tommy laughs. "Yeah, I'd say." Before Brittany can respond, she hears the front door open.

"Hope everything is PG-13 up in here," Jackson calls into the house, obviously not aware that Brittany and Santana are back yet.

Brittany smiles at the familiar voice and steps out into the hall to greet the boy. "Jacks!"

"Britt, you're here!" Jackson quickly slips off his shoes and strides over the blonde, pulling her into a warm hug. "Ash said you guys wouldn't be in until later."

"I think my parents were trying to get her into trouble," Brittany laughs, returning the hug for a moment before pulling away. She holds the boy at arms length and looks him up and down, marveling at how much he's grown. It's been almost six months since she's seen him in person and not over a webcam. "Look at you, you're so big and handsome."

Jackson grins, and stands up taller, making a show of adjusting his shirt. "You know, you know, I got those Jones genes, we don't do ugly."

"Of course not," the blonde chuckles, giving the boy's head an affection rub.

"Where's Santana?"

"She and Ash are upstairs," she tells him, her eyes drifting towards the staircase. "Probably giving her an earful about what we walked in on." Jackson raises an eyebrow in question. "Ashley and Tommy were making out on the couch."

It isn't until just then that Jackson notices the other boy standing in the living room behind Brittany. "And he's still alive?"

"For now," she smirks, watching the way Jackson is eying the boy who's too preoccupied with his phone to notice. It's so clear that Jackson dislikes him as much as Santana does, though she's sure it's for different reasons. Then again, she's already known that, given all the things Mercedes has said. But it's still cute to see the normally super friendly boy dislike someone so obviously. He looks like a scowling puppy, and it reminds her so much of the way Santana used to glare at Artie.

Just as Jackson is about to comment on how unbelievable that is, he hears footsteps descending the stairs and his name being called. "Well, well, well, look who decided to show up."

"Hey, Tana," he greets, playfully widening his eyes at Brittany as if he was afraid of her fiancé, before turning around and watching her make her way down the stairs with his best friend. "Long time, no see."

"Tell me about it," she agrees, reaching the bottom of the stairs. "You should've come down with Ash the last time she came for a visit. I know your sister would've loved to see you."

"Couldn't get the time off work," he explains, returning the hug he's pulled into. "But I'll try to next time, for sure." He watches as Ashley bypasses him and heads straight to her boyfriend, leaning up to give him a kiss and whisper in his ear. He doesn't even have time to pout before he feels a smack on the back of his head. "Ow! What was that for? Only my mama is allowed to hit me like that."

"How could you let that happen?" Santana hisses, pointing at the cuddling couple in the other room. "I entrusted you with my second most prized possession and you let some dudebro get all up on it!"

Brittany stifles a laugh as Santana continues to swat at the boy, clearly taking her frustrations with Ashley's boyfriend out on her best friend. "Honey, calm down."

"You don't think I tried?" he hisses back, shoving her hands away. "I want them together about as much as you do, the guy's a jerk. But you know Ash, she wouldn't listen to me."

"Then you talk to _him_ ," Santana instructs, rolling her eyes. "Tell him to back off or you'll kick his ass."

"That guy is like twice my size!" Jackson points out with wide eyes. "And he's on the football team. He'd kill me."

Santana huffs and shakes her head at the boy's naivete. "Oh, Jackson, Jackson, Jackson. I have so much to teach you. It's not about size, it's about attitude. You act like you could kick his ass, and he'll think you can." Brittany bites her lip to keep from commenting, a certain fight with Lauren Zizes coming to mind.

"Uh, no he won't."

"Yes, he will, trust me," she tells him wisely, then turns to her fiancé. "Britts, can you distract Ash for a couple of minutes so we can have a talk with Tommy boy in there?"

Brittany sighs and shakes her head, pouting at Santana's behavior. They _just_ got home and she's already about to start trouble. "Now? Can't you wait? Maybe give him a chance?"

"I don't plan on letting him enter this house again while I'm here, so it kind of has to be now," Santana explains, dead serious. She stomps her foot when Brittany just looks amused. "I'm serious, Britts! Don't look at me like I'm a puppy that just did a trick! Please get your sister out of the room so I can scare her lame boyfriend."

The blonde glances at Jackson and he nods his head, letting her know that he'll make sure she doesn't go overboard. "Fine." She rolls her eyes when Santana gives her a kiss on the cheek and pulls Jackson into the living room. "Hey, Ash, wanna come help me with something?"

"With what?"

"Start dinner?" Brittany answers, clearly unsure.

"It's not even three yet," Ashley replies, raising an eyebrow at her sister. She notices Santana and Jackson lurking in the corner and eyes them suspiciously. "What are you two freaks doing?"

"Go help your sister," Santana snaps, glaring at the couple on the couch. "Your parents left me in charge this weekend, so you have to do as I say."

Ashley snickers at the older girl. "No they didn't, Brittany's in charge."

"And she wants your help, so do as she says, brat."

"God, just say you want me to leave the room so you can threaten my boyfriend," she groans, pushing herself off the couch and making her way towards her sister. "You three are so obvious."

"Wait, what?" Tommy asks, his eyes darting between his girlfriend and the two people glaring holes into him.

Ashley gives him a sympathetic smile, but still continues to the door. "Sorry, babe. I warned you she was going to do this, so you might as well get it over with. Scream really loud if she starts maiming you."

Tommy watches his girlfriend exit the room, leaving him alone with two people he barely knows. He knows Jackson goes to his school, has been Ashley's best friend for ages, is totally in love with her, and he's pretty sure he doesn't like him very much. And he knows Santana is her surrogate big sister, has been with her sister since forever, has known her since the day she was born, and is insanely protective of her. He's _positive_ she doesn't like him. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat as they stalk towards him and sit on either side of him.

Just as Tommy is opening his mouth to speak, Santana cuts him off. "Don't speak, just listen," she instructs him, holding up a finger in a gesture of silence. "I know exactly what you're going to say. All you guys are alike and I know tons of you. So let me just drop a little bit of knowledge on you and we can never speak again, m'kay?" Tommy gulps and nods meekly. "You see, Ashley is very, very important to me, and I love her very, very much. And I am very, _very_ protective of the people I love. I don't like you and I don't like you dating Ashley, but sadly, there's not much I can do about that, short of murdering you." She pauses and punches the stunned boy in the arm in mock playfulness. "I'm kidding, that's a joke." Tommy forces out a painfully uncomfortable laugh. "But Ashley's well being isn't a joke to me, so if I hear anything about you mistreating her in any way, I will _ends_ you. Don't think for a second that just because I live in LA that you won't have to face my wrath, because I will not hesitate to fly all the way up here and kick your ass if I hear you've hurt her, you got it?"

"Y-Yes," Tommy stutters out and Jackson tries to hold back his laugh. He's never seen Tommy so intimidated, especially not by a girl half his size. He knows Santana can be scary, but _damn_.

"And don't think I won't hear about it," she warns him. "I gotst people all over this town, just dying to rat you out, so tread _very_ carefully. You treat my girl like the gorgeous fucking princess that she is, or you'll be in a lot of trouble. Do we have an understanding?"

"Yeah, yes, I got it," Tommy rushes to agree, just wanting to end this conversation and get the hell out of this house. Now he understands why Mr. Pierce just laughed and told him he'd have something worse coming to him when he jokingly asked if he was gonna get the Father/Boyfriend talk from him. "I, I promise to treat her right."

"Good boy," she tells him condescendingly. "You got anything to add, Jacks?"

The boy has a lot he wants to say to this jerk dating his best friend, but while he has Santana as back up now, he knows he won't after this week, so he just settles for echoing her words. "What she said."

"I'm glad we could have this little chat," Santana finishes, patting him on the knee. Tommy's eyes land on her hand, and he squirms under her tightening grip. "Why don't you go find Ashley?"

"That sounds like a great idea!" he exclaims, jumping up from the couch and quickly hurrying to the door. "It was nice meeting you."

They watch him leave the room before Santana turns to Jackson and gives him a satisfied smile. "I think that went well."

"Definitely."

 

Even though Santana didn't technically ban Tommy from coming over (because apparently she doesn't have that authority), the boy has been scarce ever since. He'll walk Ashley home from school, but won't come in, and he only hangs out with her if it's far away from anywhere Santana might be. Santana is quite pleased with this outcome, but Ashley won't stop pouting.

She doesn't let it get in the way of their time together, though. In fact, she's been spending most of her time hanging around the house, soaking up as much time with Brittany and Santana as she can before they go back. She misses them so much while they're gone, and even though they talk on the phone and Skype constantly, it's not the same. Even after almost six years of having them out of the house, she's still not used to it, and she can't wait until they're living close together again. She and Jackson have already made plans to move out to LA to join their sisters after graduation.

Ashley loves having Brittany and Santana in the house again, and after the Tommy incident things have been perfect, and she's debating whether to ask them something she's been dying to ask them for a while. She's kind of dreading Santana's reaction, even more than she was dreading the boyfriend reveal, and wonders if it would be better to ask over Skype, where she can just hang up if she starts freaking out. But it's kind of a big subject and she's pretty sure it's something that would be better discussed in person.

So, she waits until Friday night, an hour before Jackson is supposed to pick her up for a party at Tommy's best friend's house. They don't usually go to parties, but Tommy really wants her to come since they haven't seen each other much that week, and she begged Jackson to tag along for back up. She figures it's a good idea to bring the topic up when she has plans, so if it goes horribly, she has an easy out.

She's all dressed up early and finds the girls cuddled on the couch in the living room, watching some rerun on television. "Hey, guys."

"Hey, Ash," Brittany greets, tearing her eyes away from the TV to smile at her sister. "I thought Jackson wasn't coming for another hour?"

"He's not," she confirms, then sits down on the other end of the couch nervously. "I uh, I was actually wondering if I could talk to you guys about something."

"Sure," Santana agrees, sitting up to give the younger girl her attention. She can tell she's nervous by the way she's playing with the hem of her top. "What's up, kiddo?"

Ashley bites her lip and tries to figure out the best way to broach the subject. "You have to promise you won't get mad."

"We won't," Brittany promises with a smile.

"Not you." Ashley nods her head towards Santana. "Her."

Santana rolls her eyes and huffs. "Fine, whatever. I promise not to get mad."

The younger blonde knows she's full of shit, but asks anyways. "What was your, uh, your first… time like?"

"Our first time having sex?" Brittany clarifies. Ashley feels her cheeks flush and she nods her head. Brittany immediately finds Santana's hand and squeezes, knowing her fiancé is trying really hard not to freak out. "Do you mean our first time together or our first times at all?"

"They're not the same?" Ashley doesn't know why she's surprised, since she knows both girls had their fair of hook ups in high school, but she always just kind of figured they lost their virginity to each other for some reason.

"Well, for me it was," Brittany shares, making sure not to look at Santana or see her reaction.

"What?" Santana asks, her internal freak out over what Ashley's question meant momentarily forgotten in her surprise. She tugs on Brittany's hand to get her attention. "What are you talking about? I thought you lost it to that councilor at cheer camp."

Brittany shrugs and avoids her gaze. "I lied."

"Why would you-"

"Honey, we can talk about that later," she cuts her off with a soft smile. She squeezes her hand again and shifts her eyes towards her sister, reminding the brunette that they're trying to help her.

Santana nods and gives Ashley her attention. She clears her throat before she answers, showing the younger blonde that she's just as nervous as she is. "I lost it to a guy up at my cousin's house, the summer before high school. His name was Kyle, and he was two years older than I was and it was quick and painful and not great." She smiles sadly at the blondes. "He was nice enough, but I didn't really like him that much, and I never saw him again."

"Do you regret it?" Ashley asks after a moment, not sure how to take Santana's story. It didn't sound like an awful experience or anything, but it didn't sound great either.

"I don't know," Santana admits. "I've never really thought about it. In a perfect world, the only person I would've ever slept with would be your sister, but that can't happen." She kisses Brittany on the cheek and pulls her against her body. "I don't think it makes what we have any less special or cheapens it at all. Do I wish Britt had been my first? Of course, but…"

"Why do you ask, honey?" Brittany asks gently.

Santana notices the way Ashley's eyes dart to her uncertainty. "It's okay, Ash, I promise I won't flip out. This is a big thing, and you shouldn't have to deal with it alone. I want you to be able to talk to us about this kind of stuff without worrying I'm going to yell at you or something."

"Okay," Ashley relents, tucking a leg under herself to get comfortable. "Well, it's just that I've never done it before, obviously, and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. A lot of girls in my grade have done it, and Tommy's done it, so…"

"Who cares who's done it?" Santana interrupts, not liking where this is going. Ashley's head snaps up, confused at Santana's sudden outburst after what she'd just said to her. "Look, as much as I would _hate_ it, if you want to have sex, then that's cool. Okay, it's not _cool_ , but I could live with it. But only if you do it because you _want_ to and because _you're_ ready, not because everyone else is doing it, or because your douche boyfriend is pressuring you into it."

"It's not like that," Ashley reassures her. "That stuff just got me thinking. I don't know if I want to, or if I'm ready, I've just been thinking about it lately, trying to figure out if I do or if I am. I just thought maybe you guys could help."

"Only you know when you're ready, Ash," Brittany tells her, reaching over and taking one of her sister's hands as well. "I'm not sure if I was ready, but I was lucky because I lost it to the right person, so it all worked out. Do you think Tommy is the right person?"

Ashley's shoulders slump a little at the question. "I don't know. I really like him, and we're doing well right now, but I don't know."

"Then he's not."

"At least maybe not right now," Brittany immediately adds, knowing Santana's quick answer is more than a little biased. "That doesn't mean he won't be later, I think it just means that maybe you're not ready yet. But only you know, and only you can make that decision. You're a smart girl, I know you'll figure it out."

Ashley gives her a warm smile and pulls her into a hug. She knows she's right. "Thanks, Britty."

"And when you do, don't be afraid to tell us, okay?" Santana adds, joining the hug. "Or if you wanna talk more about it."

"I will," she promises, enjoying the feeling of being surrounded by two of her favorite people in the world. It really is so nice to have them home.

 

A couple hours later, Ashley has left for the party with Jackson and the girls are still cuddled on the couch, enjoying the familiar feeling of being in one of the homes they grew up in. While Brittany is actually watching the screen, Santana's mind is elsewhere, thinking about what Brittany had said earlier.

"What's wrong?" the blonde finally asks, tilting her head back to see her girl's face. "I can smell the smoke from all the wheels turning in your head."

Santana smiles down at Brittany and shakes her head. "Nothing's wrong, I was just thinking about earlier."

"You're not worried Ashley is going to sleep with Tommy tonight or anything, are you? Because I think she realized she wasn't ready."

"No, no, not that," she assures the blonde, running her fingers through her soft blonde hair. She shakes her head again and drops a kiss on her forehead. "It's not about Ashley. I was thinking about what you said about how you lost it. You said you lied about camp and that you really lost it to me."

"Ah," Brittany sighs. "Right. _That_."

"Is it true?"

Brittany nods, turning to press her face into Santana's neck in slight embarrassment. Santana just waits, knowing Brittany will explain herself. "When you came back from Ana's, you kept talking about how awesome sex was and all the other girls on the squad thought you were so cool, and then they started and I don't know, I just felt like a baby because I hadn't done it yet. It seemed like everyone else had, and I already felt weird because I still watched cartoons and wore footie pajamas, so I just said I'd already done it, too. I said it was that older guy to sound more mature, and because I knew we wouldn't see him again so they'd never know I was lying."

"Okay, I get that," Santana speaks softly, and she really does. Nobody understands lying to help your reputation more than she does. "But how come you lied to me, too?"

"I don't know, I felt like a loser for lying about it," she explains, not really remembering her logic from all those years ago. It made sense to her at the time. "And then we started kissing more and I really wanted you to be my first, but I was worried you wouldn't do it if you knew I was a virgin, so I just didn't tell you."

Santana wants to reassure her, but they'd just be lies. She really doesn't know what her bitchy, closeted fifteen year old self would've done with that knowledge. "I was so horrible to you the next morning."

"It's okay," Brittany sighs, wrapping an arm around Santana's waist and cuddling closer to her. "Even then I knew you were just scared."

"But I wish I could've made it more special for you."

"It was special, cause it was with you," Brittany assures her, giving her a cheesy grin. "My first time was with the love of my life, not many people can say that, so I'm good."

"I'm glad I could give you that, baby." Santana closes her eyes and holds her fiancé closer, suddenly overwhelmed with so much nostalgia by the conversation and the room they're sitting in. "I wish I could give that to Ashley, too." Brittany raises an eyebrow at her and she reconsiders her words. "I mean, I wish I could make sure Ashley could have that, too. You know what I mean."

"I do," the blonde laughs, kissing Santana's chin. "And I love that you wish you could. But I think she'll be okay."

Before Santana can reply, her phone buzzes on the table beside her, alerting her of a call. She raises an eyebrow and reaches for it, having no idea who would be calling her, since pretty much everyone knows she's on vacation in Lima. She checks the ID and just gets more confused when she sees it's Ashley. "Hello?"

"Tana?" Santana picks up on the shakiness in her voice right away.

"Ash, what's wrong? Are you crying?" Brittany sits up at her words and looks on in worry.

"I-I'm at the hospital," Ashley stutters out with a sniffle. "Can you come and pick us up?"

Santana feels her blood run cold. "You're at the hospital? What the fuck happened?"

"It's not me, I'm fine," Ashley quickly says, cursing herself for not opening with that. "It's Jackson. There was a fight, and he's pretty beat up."

"We'll be there right away," she promises, ending the call and launching herself off the couch and towards the front door, Brittany hot on her heels.

"What's going on?" Brittany asks frantically, following Santana's lead and slipping on some shoes. "Is Ash okay?"

"I think she's fine, it's Jackson," Santana explains, grabbing a jacket but not bothering to put it on. She waits until Brittany's ready before they race out the door.

 

They're able to find the two teens in the waiting room, having already been seen and discharged. As they get closer, Santana notices that Jackson has a cast on his right hand, a black eye, a swollen nose, and a busted lip, and Ashley is gently holding an ice pack against his temple.

"Oh my God," she exclaims as they rush over, giving them both hugs before sitting down on either side of them. "What the hell happened?"

"Tommy was drunk and being an asshole," Ashley explains, practically shaking with anger. "He kept groping me while we were dancing and wouldn't stop when I told him to, so Jackson came over to try to get him to back off, but he wouldn't. He tried to drag me somewhere and Jackson pushed him away, so Tommy punched him and a bunch of his friends got involved." Santana cringes as she listens, feeling more rage than she can remember feeling in years.

"Are you okay?" Brittany asks him, knowing Santana is having trouble keeping calm.

Jackson nods and tries to offer her a smile, but winces when the cut on his lip stings. "Worst of it is my hand, and I broke that punching him, so I'm good."

"My hero," Ashley sighs, only half joking, kissing him gently on his bruised cheek. She's already thanked him and fussed over him enough earlier, not that that will stop her from doing it when they're alone again.

"Did you call your parents?"

"Yeah, but they didn't answer," he explains to Brittany. "Date night."

Santana watches the three converse for a few more moments as she gets her emotions in check. She wants to go find Tommy and beat the shit out of him herself, but looking at Jackson, she knows Ashley doesn't need someone else getting hurt defending her honor. "Come on, we should head home. You can stay with us tonight, Jacks."

"Thanks." Ashley lets her best friend take control of the ice pack and helps him stand up, the dizziness in his head causing him to stumble just a bit. As they start to walk down to the exit, Brittany manages to pull a very reluctant Ashley away from the boy's side, knowing Santana is dying to talk to him alone.

The blondes walk ahead a little, and Santana falls in step with Jackson, keeping an eye on him to make sure he won't fall. Once she thinks they're far enough behind, she grasps his elbow gently to get his attention. " _Thank you_."

She doesn't have to say anything more, he knows exactly what she means. He gives her bashful smile and nods his head. "Anytime."

 

Everyone is exhausted by the time they get home and they all head to bed, Ashley insisting that Jackson shares with her so she can keep an eye on him.

Santana peeks into Ashley's room when she's done in the bathroom, and smiles when she sees the blonde curled into Jackson's side, an arm around his waist protectively. She whispers a goodnight to them and continues on to Brittany's old room, closing the door and slipping in beside the other girl.

Brittany immediately cuddles up to her, unknowingly mirroring her sister, and lets out a sigh. "I'm really glad Jackson was there tonight."

"Me too." Santana doesn't even want to think about what could have happened if he hadn't been there to help Ashley. "I think you were right about what you said before."

"About what?"

"About her being okay," Santana answers, trailing her finger tips along Brittany's side to sooth her. "I don't think we have anything to worry about."

 

A month and a half later, when Ashley turns beat red after she lets it slip during a Skype call that she lost her virginity to Jackson a couple weeks prior, Santana knows they were right.

She still would've preferred she waited until she was married and at least thirty, but she'll take it.


	11. Questions

"Knock, knock," Mercedes' voice calls into the apartment, pushing the door open and making her way inside without a second thought.

"Did you know that instead of saying the words 'knock, knock', most people actually, you know, knock?" Santana says with a smirk, eyes still glued to her laptop. She hears her friend drop her purse on the kitchen counter and make her way into the living room to sit down in the chair adjacent to her. "And some even wait until they're invited in before entering someone else's home."

Mercedes just rolls her eyes, knowing Santana isn't really bothered at all. The three of them practically live together with how much time they spend at each other places, so she knows Santana is just joking. They actually did live together for about six months when Brittany and Santana first came to LA after graduating from college, and even though Mercedes has traumatizing emotional scars that might never fully heal from that experience, it really brought them all closer than ever. And now, her home is their home, and their home is her home, like they live in a sitcom or something.

"Tell that to your fiancé," Mercedes shoots back, settling into her seat. "Did she tell you how she walked in on me and Sean on the couch the other day?"

Santana snickers and finally glances up from her screen to look at her friend. "Yeah, she said Sean's totally packing."

"She did not," the other girl laughs, shaking her head. "We were both fully clothed, unlike the two of you almost every time I've walked in on you."

"Which brings me back to my point: try knocking."

"And I repeat: tell that to your fiancé."

Santana narrows her eyes as Mercedes mockingly before she grins at her. "Well that wouldn't be any fun now, would it? We'd have nothing to embarrass each other with."

"I'm sure we could find something," Mercedes counters, propping her legs up on the coffee table like Santana is doing. "Where is Britt, anyway?"

"Picking up the brats," Santana answers, typing up the last of her email to her parents and then shutting the lid of her laptop. She glances at her phone for the time. "She should be back any minute now." She's trying to contain her excitement, but she really can't wait to see Ashley. It's been a few months since she's seen her last.

"Oh, right, duh," Mercedes laughs at herself. "That's why I came over, to see Jackson."

"And you got stuck with me."

"And I admire Brittany more and more every day," Mercedes replies dryly, enjoying her banter with Santana as always. They had grown close by the end of high school, but these past couple years of living in LA together has really brought them even closer. They still playfully make fun of each other, but any of the bite that used to lace their words was long gone, and replaced with underlying affection.

Santana laughs and pushes herself to her feet, placing her laptop on the table and moving towards the kitchen to grab something to drink. "If you don't stop being mean to me, I won't let you be Brittany's maid of honor."

"But it'll be easier for everyone to hear me object when I'm already up at the front," she shoots back, twisting around in the chair to continue their conversation. "Speaking of, are you asking Ash about that this week?"

"Yeah," Santana calls from the kitchen. "You want anything?"

"Just some water."

Santana grabs a second bottle from the fridge and makes her way back into the living room, handing the drink to her friend. "I was going to ask her when we went back home a couple months ago, but then the Tommy drama happened, and I didn't want to do it over Skype. It's better to do it in person."

"Definitely," Mercedes agrees, twisting her cap and taking a gulp. "She's gonna be so excited."

"Yeah, she will." Santana can't help but smile at the thought of Ashley's reaction. She knows the girl will be touched. "So don't you say anything, even to Jacks."

Mercedes holds her hands up in innocence. "Obviously."

Santana is just about to continue threatening her when the apartment door opens and Brittany enters with their guests. "The party can start, I have arrived," Jackson declares as he drops his suitcase by the door and makes a beeline for his sister.

"Jackson, boy, it's so good to see you," she gushes, standing up and wrapping her baby brother in a big hug.

Ashley smiles at their reunion before she drops her own suitcase beside her boyfriend's and rushes towards Santana for her own hug. "Hey, Tana!"

"Hey, you," the older girl grins, giving Ashley a big bear hug in greeting. She pulls away and holds the blonde at arm length, looking her up and down. "You're getting so tall. It…"

"Won't be long until I'm taller than you," Ashley finishes for her with an eye roll. "You've been saying that for years, and it hasn't happened yet."

"But it will," Mercedes throws in, holding her hand up to gesture to her much taller younger brother. "And when it does, you'll have a mid-midlife crisis. Have fun with that, Britt."

Brittany laughs as she joins the group, hauling Ashley and Jackson's suitcases with her. "You should've seen how much she pouted the day she realized I was taller than her." Brittany smiles and kisses away the pout that's formed from her words. "Aw, don't worry, baby, you're big where it counts."

"Wanky," Ashley and Santana respond at the same time, sharing a grin at their shared thought. Santana absolutely loves when she sees glimpses of herself in Ashley. She adores the fact that she really did grow up to the perfect blend of her and Brittany.

Brittany shakes her head at them and starts making her way towards the guest bedroom. "Come on, you two, help me bring your stuff into the guest room."

After getting Ashley and Jackson settled in and discovering just how little food Brittany and Santana have in their apartment, the five of them head out for dinner. They go to one of their favorite local restaurants, where Ashley and Jackson get fawned over when they introduce their regular waitress to their visiting siblings.

After dinner, which Santana pays for, they just head back home, Ashley and Jackson too exhausted from their trip to do much else. They lounge around and catch up for a bit, before Mercedes heads home to her apartment across the street, leaving them all with a warm hug and a promise to call in the morning. Her apartment is only a single, and Brittany insists it's okay for Jackson to share their guest room with Ashley (much to Santana's protests), so he won't get stuck on her couch.

"I think we're gonna head to bed, too," Ashley says through a yawn, pushing herself off Jackson's lap to stand up. "Get a good night sleep so we can get our tourist on tomorrow."

Santana nods from her seat cuddled into Brittany's side, and smiles when both teens kiss them each on the cheeks. "Oh, and there will be no sex in my apartment."

"Whoa, what, whoa, we don't-" Jackson stutters out, his eyes wide in fear that Santana is going to kill him.

"I already know you're having sex," Santana cuts him off, trying her best to keep the snarl out of her voice. She loves Jackson and trusts him completely, but she's still not happy her little Ashley is sexually active. "And I don't care." Brittany, Ashley and Jackson all give her questioning looks and she relents. "Okay, I _care_ , but you know what I mean. I'm just saying that it will not be happening while you're here, do you understand?"

Ashley scoffs at Santana. "Then you two can't have sex while we're here either."

"Ash," Brittany warns, trying not to smile at the way her fiancé is narrowing her eyes at her sister. "Don't push your luck, just go to bed."

The blonde teen rolls her eyes and heads towards the guest room, her boyfriend quickly following behind. "I can't believe you told her! Are you trying to get me killed, woman?"

Brittany laughs at the young couple, and turns back to kiss the scowl off Santana's face once she hears the bedroom door close. "You didn't have to say that, you know Jacks would be way too scared to try anything when you're in the next bedroom.'

"Can't be too careful, Britts," Santana reminds her, snuggling closer into the blonde's side to watch the rest of whatever movie has been playing in the background.

 

The next few days are spent exploring the city, seeing the standard tourist spots and hanging out at the beach. They get to check out Brittany and Santana's work places - Brittany is a dance instructor at a pretty upscale dance studio close to their apartment, while Santana works at the studio Mercedes sings at (she's just doing menial tasks right now, but she hopes to end up producing one day), and even take a tour of UCLA, the school Jackson and Ashley hope to attend after graduation.

The constant group activities makes it hard for Santana to get any time alone with Ashley, and it isn't until midweek, when Brittany is at work and Jackson is off spending quality time with his sister and her latest boyfriend Sean, that she manages to get her alone to talk.

"You still liking LA?" Santana asks as she drops down on the couch beside the teen.

"Yeah, I can't wait to move out here after grad," Ashley answers her, not looking up from where she's texting away on her phone.

Santana eyes the girl, waiting for her to finish and give her some attention, and sighs when her fingers don't seem to be slowing down. "Okay, no more sexting," she declares, grabbing the device out of Ashley's hands. "I think you and Jackson can afford to be incommunicado for a couple of hours."

"We're not sexting," Ashley insists with a glare, but doesn't bother to try to fight Santana for her phone back. "He's just complaining about Mercedes' boyfriend."

"Sean's cool," Santana says with a shrug, not seeing what kind of problem Jackson would have with him.

"He's just being overprotective of his sister," she explains with a smirk. "You might know a little something about that."

Santana gives her an exaggerated eye roll, the same one the teen has been giving her all week. "Don't make me regret what I'm about to ask you."

"What?" Ashley asks, sitting up straighter when she sees Santana is being serious. It isn't until now that she realizes just how little chance she's gotten to talk to Santana during their vacation, at least one on one. It's been all group stuff with Brittany and Jackson and Mercedes.

"Britts and I have officially started planning the wedding…"

"Oh, have you guys decided if you're having it here or back home yet?"

Santana nods. It was the first thing they decided when they sat down to start planning. They've made a lot of friends out in LA, and they've settled in enough that it feels like they're home now, but ultimately, they knew there was never a question. "We're gonna do it in Lima. It's where we met and had all our big moments and all. Plus, most of our family is there and everything."

Ashley hums in agreement and waits for Santana to continue. When she doesn't, she urges her on, "You wanted to ask me something?"

"Right, okay, at the risk of sounding mushy and shit," Santana begins, wringing her hands together and suddenly feeling weirdly nervous. She has no idea why, she's never felt nervous in front of Ashley in her entire life. "I wanted to ask you if you'd be my maid of honor?"

The blonde sucks in a surprised breath and eyes Santana. She kind of figured they'd ask her - they did promise her all those years ago - but she always just kind of assumed she'd be Brittany's, while Santana would ask one of her family members or something. "Yours?"

"Well, yeah," the brunette replies with a shrug. She starts to feel a bit self conscious at her surprise and this is exactly why she doesn't plan on having any bridesmaids. She knows she'd feel awkward asking people, because besides Ashley and Mercedes, there aren't really any other girls in their lives anymore that would be obvious choices, and the last thing she wants to do is ask someone and have them feel obligated to agree. "We all know you love me more, anyway."

Ashley laughs and beams at the other girl, beyond touched that Santana wants her to stand up with her on her big day. "You really want me to be your maid of honor?"

"Of course." Santana rolls her eyes good naturedly and leans into the blonde, pulling her against her side. "I love you, kid, a whole lot. I know Britt is your real sister and all, but I don't know, we've always kind of had our own special thing, right?"

"We do," the blonde smiles, squeezing Santana's arm and leaning her head against her shoulder. "Of course I love Britty, but you've always been my hero, Tana. You know that. The way you'd help me and look after me, how ridiculously overprotective you still are of me…"

"You know I'm always gonna be that way with you, right? Like even when you're thirty, I'll probably be yelling at your bratty kids for talking back to you."

Ashley lets out an exaggerated sigh, but can't help but smile at the reassurance. As annoying as Santana's irrational behavior can be sometimes, it's always been a constant reminder of just how much Santana loves her, and she could never hate that. "I'm kind of hoping you'll have your own kids to distract you by then."

"Oh, we probably will," Santana concedes. That's the plan, anyway. "But you'll always feel like my first kid, so you know, hold habits and everything." She nudges Ashley's side. "So? Is that a yes or what?"

"Yes," Ashley confirms, pulling away just enough to be able to press a kiss to Santana's cheek. "Of course I'll be your maid of honor."

Santana gives her the biggest smile, and returns the kiss to her forehead. "Thanks, babycakes."

Ashley nods and settles back into Santana's side, making a promise to herself to make sure she spends as much of her time left in LA with her sisters as she can. Santana was right before, she has been preoccupied with Jackson since they arrived, when she should be spending time with the two girls she rarely gets to see anymore. Snuggling closer into Santana's side, she wraps her arm around the older girl's waist. "Don't tell Jackson this, but you're probably still my favorite person in the whole world."

"Aww," Santana coos, dropping a kiss on her blonde head. "You're still my second favorite, though."

"Yeah, yeah," she mock grumbles, though she's not offended at all. She knows Santana will always love Brittany the most.


	12. Wedding Day

"Everyone decent?" Ashley asks, poking her head into her sister's dressing room. A huge smile spreads across her face when she spots her big sister standing in the middle of the room in her beautiful wedding dress. "Wow. You look beautiful, Britt."

Brittany spins around and smiles at her little sister. "Thanks, Ash. You look great, too."

"Yeah, blue is totally my color," she agrees, holding the bottom of her dress out as she speaks. "So glad you guys went with this and not that horrible yellow."

"Praise!" Mercedes voices her agreement from the other side of the room, dutifully trying to get a mark off of one of Brittany's shoes. "I looked like a school bus."

"Oh," Ashley breathes out, just now noticing the other girl. She bites her lip nervously, not sure how to act around her ex-boyfriend's sister. "H-Hi, Mercedes."

The older girl picks up on her nerves right away, and makes sure to send the blonde a reassuring smile, letting her know that there doesn't have to be any weirdness between them just because of what happened with Jackson. "Hi, sweetie. You look great."

"Thanks," Ashley mumbles, a bit of a blush creeping up on her cheeks. She's always loved Mercedes, and she hates that she feels so unsure around her now. The other girl is doing nothing to make her feel bad, even though Ashley thinks she totally should, but with everything going on with her and Jackson, it feels weird that his big sister is being so nice to her. "You, too."

Sensing Ashley's discomfort, Brittany draws the attention back to herself. "How's that gorgeous fiancé of mine doing?"

"She's actually doing pretty well," Ashley assures her sister, giving her a grateful smile for the topic change. "Much better than she was before she proposed. She's not even hyperventilating this time."

Brittany laughs, having heard quite a few stories about the way Santana had freaked out before she proposed to her. She had done it in the choir room, while they were back home for their first Thanksgiving out of college. She asked her parents' permission first, got help picking out the ring from Mercedes and Ashley, and conspired with everyone behind her back to put the moment together. Santana forget everything she had planned out to say to her right before she proposed, but it was still the perfect moment. Or, it will be for another hour, until they have their new perfect moment, in front of all their family and friends.

"Is she alone now?" Brittany asks, her voice a bit hopeful that maybe their maid of honors will let them seeing each other. "Do you think I could just…?"

"Her mom is with her," Ashley immediately cuts her off, sending her a stern warning glare. She's had to listen to Santana whine all day and night about not being able to see Brittany, she doesn't need the blonde to start up, too. "And I saw Haley trying to sneak in when I was coming over here. I actually better head back and make sure they're not stressing her out."

"I thought you said she was doing well?"

Ashley shakes her head, noticing how worried Brittany is getting. "She is, she is, but you know how Mrs. Lopez can get. Plus, I think we're supposed to have some kind of moment or something before the wedding. That's something the maid of honor is supposed to do, right? Give a pep talk or have a heart to heart?"

"Yep, I've got mine all ready," Mercedes answers her, holding Brittany's now spotless show up triumphantly and making her way back over to the sisters. "I'm totally gonna reuse some of it in my speech at the reception but, you know, that's just between us."

Ashley smiles and nods, not trusting herself not to blurt out something embarrassingly pathetic in front of Mercedes. Instead, she goes for a joke. "Oh shoot, a speech. I knew I forgot something!"

"Don't even joke about that, Ash," Brittany warns, holding up her foot so Mercedes can slip her heel back into place. "Santana might seem like she's holding it together, but one hint that there's anything wrong and she'll lose it."

"Relax, I got this," Ashley assures her, leaning forward to wrap her sister in a hug and gently place a kiss on her cheek, careful of both of their make up. "You really do look gorgeous, big sis. I'm so happy for you, Britt."

Brittany beams, squeezing her tightly before letting her go. She pinches her nose playfully like she always did when she was younger, before releasing her completely. "Go save my fiancé from her mother. I'll see you out there."

"I'll see you at the end of the aisle," she corrects with a wink, sending a polite smile in Mercedes direction and then heading out the door and back down the hall to Santana's room. The bride to be is alone when she gets there, nervously running her hands over the front of her dress as she stares at herself in the mirror. "Everything's okay over there."

"Good," Santana nods, breathing a small sigh of relief now that she knows Brittany is okay. They haven't seen each other since yesterday afternoon, and it's pretty much the longest they've been apart since Brittany graduated high school and Santana is going a little crazy. "That's good."

"Everything go okay with your mom?"

"Yeah, she was just telling me that my abuela showed up."

Ashley's eyes light up, knowing how huge that is. "Really? Tana, that's so awesome, I'm so happy for you."

Santana can't stop the smile from breaking out on her face and she turns around to face the younger girl. "I know, I can't believe it. I mean, things have been better, but that's just seeing her once or twice a year. We invited her, but I really didn't think she'd come. I wasn't sure if I wanted her to, to be honest. But I'm glad she did show, so I guess I did."

"Well, I'm glad," Ashley smiles back, reaching forward to take Santana's hands in her own. "Are you still good? I don't have to get you some vodka or anything?"

Santana laughs. "No, I'm okay, really."

"Really?" Ashley asks, a bit skeptical. She's watched enough movies and shows to know that the bride and groom are always nervous before the wedding. "It's okay to be nervous, I won't tell."

"I'm really not," Santana assures her, a content smile growing on her face. "I mean, I guess I'm a bit nervous for the actual ceremony, getting up there in front of all those people and everything, but I'm not nervous to marry Britt. I've wanted to marry her since we were kids. I'm more than ready." Ashley, suddenly hit with a tidal wave of mixed emotions, forces a smile at Santana as she tries to swallow passed the lump rapidly forming in her throat. "Hey, hey, what's wrong, kid?"

"It's nothing," Ashley gasps out, shaking her head and sucking in a big breath, quickly wiping at her eyes. "It's nothing, ignore me. This is your big day, today is about you."

Santana reaches out and cups Ashley's rosy cheek, gently running the pad of her thumb under her eye to brush away her tears. "I've always got time for you, Ash. Come on, I could use the distraction." Grabbing the girl's hand, she pulls her towards the couch and sits them both down. "Tell Aunty Tana wants wrong. Is it Jackson?"

"I totally blew it, Tana," Ashley sniffles, trying her best to keep her tears at bay, not wanting to ruin her make up any more than she already has. "I was so stupid."

"Hey, what have I told you about that word?"

Ashley appreciates it, but really, she was. "No, I was. I was so stupid." Wiping furiously at her eyes again, she leans back against the couch and looks at Santana. "Did you ever get scared?"

"Of what?"

"You and Britt," Ashley clarifies. "You guys have been together for, like, ever. Didn't that ever scare you? Like that you'd already found the person you were gonna spend the rest of your life with? Didn't you ever just kinda think, like, 'this is it?'"

Santana watches the younger girl, and she doesn't think she's ever seen her look so lost. "Is that what happened with you and Jacks?"

"Ever since we got together, I don't know, I've felt all this pressure," Ashley explains, picking at a loose strain on her dress. "With your wedding coming up, everyone kept asking when _our_ wedding was gonna be, like it was already set in stone, and I don't know, I freaked out." She looks at Santana helplessly and shrugs. "I'm still in high school and all my friends have new boyfriends every other week, and it just felt like I was missing out. I love Jackson, I didn't doubt that, but I started feeling trapped, I guess. We'd already made plans to move to LA after high school, everyone assumed we were gonna get married, it just, it was so much pressure."

"And that's when the new guy came in?" Santana has only heard vague details on Ashley and Jackson's break up, enough to know that it wasn't Jackson's fault, so she didn't have to kick his ass or anything. But Mrs. Pierce hadn't shared much more than that, and Ashley hasn't wanted to share at all until now, not wanting to bring down their pre-wedding mood.

Ashley drops her gaze, tears prickling her eyes again. "I was such an idiot. He asked me out and I just, I wanted to feel like all my friends, not a girl that was already married at sixteen. So, I told Jackson I wanted to take a break, and I went out with James and it was awful. I mean, the date was great, and James was nice and everything, but everything just felt so wrong. I thought it was just guilt at first, but by the end of the night when he kissed me, I just burst into tears and told him what a mistake it all was."

"Aw, sweetie," Santana coos, pulling the girl against her for a hug. "You made a mistake, it's okay. Lord knows I've made plenty."

"I went straight to Jackson's and told him everything, how sorry I was and how much I regretted it, but he was so hurt," Ashley cries, remembering the look on his face when she told him about her date with James.

"Have you told him why you did it?" Santana asks, trailing her finger tips up Ashley's arm, making sure not to touch her done up hair. "I'm sure if you explained that you just had a little freak out, he'd understand."

"I don't think he wants to talk to me," Ashley answers pitifully. "Anytime I say anything to him he just mumbles something and runs away."

"Then _make_ him listen," Santana tells her firmly, giving her a squeeze. Jackson is the only guy in the world she trusts with Ashley, and she'll be damned if she lets anyone else near her.

Ashley shakes her head. "I don't deserve a second chance anyway. Jackson is the best boyfriend in the world, and I just threw it away like it was nothing. I took him for granted."

"You were scared," the brunette reasons. "You're a teenager, you're allowed to freak out a little bit."

"Did you?" Ashley questions again, pulling away to look up at the older girl. "Did you ever freak out about you and Britt?"

Santana bites her lip, not proud of what she's about to admit for the first time. "Once, freshmen year of college, that semester I was there before Britt. It was just so different there, and I was alone and long distance was really hard. Everyone around me was partying and hooking up, and I swear, every day another girl on the squad would come in all happy because she had finally broken up with her high school boyfriend and she was free now. It messed with my head." Santana drops her gaze as she remembers those days, missing Brittany and feeling like she was missing out on her college experience at the same time. "Then one day I was in the library and this girl smiled at me. Like, really smiled, like she wanted to do me right there on the table, smiled. And I mean, she wasn't even that hot or anything, but it was like I just realized that there were other girls out there, you know? I wasn't in Lima anymore, there were other lesbians there."

"Did you…" Ashley leaves the question hanging, sure she knows the answer, but terrified that she doesn't.

"No, no, of course not," Santana immediately assures her, insulted she'd even think it. "I didn't do anything with anyone, I would never. It was just like a wake up call or something and it got me thinking. I was like you, I knew I loved Brittany, and she was the girl I wanted to marry, but I was still so young, and…"

"You guys didn't break up, did you?" Ashley doesn't remember them every breaking up, but she was young, and she wouldn't be surprised if they had managed to do it and hide it from her somehow.

Santana shakes her head, smiling softly. "No. No, I uh, honestly, I thought about it, but then Britt came to surprise me one weekend and I was just so happy to see her and I realized what an idiot I was being. We went out with my friends, and I really listened to them talk and I realized how desperately they wanted what I was already lucky enough to have with Britt. I was so fucking lucky, and I wanted to punch myself in the face for ever doubting it."

"I know that feeling," Ashley grumbles, slumping against Santana's side. "I just wish everything could go back to the way it was. I miss him so much."

"I know you do, kid," Santana sighs, wishing there was anything she could do to make Ashley feel better. There are very few things in the world she hates more than Ashley being sad. "But I think everything will be okay. Just give him time, he loves you too much not to give you a second chance."

"You think so?"

"I know so," she promises with a smile, not at all worried about making a promise she can't keep. "Now come on, let's tell each other how much we love each other and all that sappy shit so we can fix our make up and get out there."

Ashley lets out a laugh and pulls away from the older girl, turning towards her and letting Santana clean her face. "Thanks, Tana. You really are the best big sister a girl could ask for."

"And you're the best little sister in the world," Santana adds, smiling fondly at the blonde as she finishes with her face, admiring how grown up she looks in this moment. "I've thought of you as my little sister since the day your parents brought you home from the hospital, and I'm so happy we're officially gonna be family now."

"We were always family, Tana," Ashley tells her softly, her words reminding Santana of that day at Haley's wedding. "We might be sisters in law after today, but we've been sisters in love for years."

Santana feels her eyes starting to tear up and she quickly tries to brush them away. "That sounds way more incesty than I'm sure you were intending, but I know what you mean."

"Well, I _was_ totally in love with you when I was younger," Ashley laughs, pushing Santana's hand away so she can return the favor.

"You totally were," Santana chuckles, widening her eyes so the blonde can wipe under hear eyes. "Britt and I were afraid you'd cry when we told you we were dating."

"I always knew your heart belonged to another," the blonde sighs, holding her free hand over her heart. "But I think it worked out for the best, since I have Jackson after all. Or, _had_ Jackson, I guess."

Santana reaches for Ashley's hand. " _Have_. That boy loves you, it'll work out, I promise."

Before Ashley can say anything further, there's a knock at the door, and Mr. Lopez is sticking his head inside. "Uh, you ladies ready? I've been told we have ten minutes."

"Yeah, you can come in," Santana tells him, letting Ashley finish with her face before standing up and pulling the younger girl up with her and wrapping her up in a hug. "I love you so much, kiddo, you have no idea."

"I love you, too," Ashley replies, squeezing Santana tight. "Brittany's gonna kill us for ruining our make up."

Santana just laughs and holds Ashley tighter.

 

Santana insists on being walked down the aisle first, so that she can watch Brittany make her way towards her in her stunning dress. Her breath catches in her throat the instant she sees her, and all the work they did to fix her make up is ruined because her eyes immediately start to water.

Brittany's father kisses her cheek before handing her off to Santana, and the girls can't take their eyes off each other as the ceremony starts. Santana only vaguely follows what the minister is saying, too distracted by Brittany and the thumping in her heart to do much else but repeat what she's asked to. She doesn't even realize it's time for vows until Brittany is spilling her heart out.

"Santana," she starts, her bottom lip trembling already. "I fell in love with you the day I met you, when you kicked Puck in the shins for stealing my animal crackers." A low rumble of laughter rolls through the crowd, and both girls can't help but glance at where Puck is sitting with the rest of the glee club with an exaggerated pout on his face. "From that moment on, you became my protector, my best friend, my partner in life. You saw something in me that nobody else ever saw, and you've made me feel like the most special girl in the world every day that I've known you." Sniffling, Brittany gives Santana a watery smile and reaches out to grasp her hands. "Not many people are lucky enough to fall in love with their best friend, and even though it wasn't always easy, I would do it all again, ten times over, for what we have. You've done so much for me, from holding my hand through the scary parts in a movie, to holding my hand down the school hallway even though _you_ were the one that was terrified. You make me feel loved through every single thing that you do, and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life trying make you feel the same."

Smiling, the minister turns to the crying brunette. "Santana?"

"Ditto," she jokes, and another round of laughter circulates the room. "No, but seriously, it's really hard not to kiss you after that."

"Keep it in your pants, Lopez!" Puck shouts from his seat, earning more laughter.

"Don't make me kick you in the shins again, Puckerman," Santana shouts back, shooting the boy a playful glare before she turns back to her bride, who's grinning ear to ear at her. "Britts, you once said that you thought everyone should have their own Santana, but I think everyone should have their own Brittany. Even as a kid, I was this mean, miserable little thing that nobody wanted to be friends with, but you, you didn't accept that. You saw something in me too and you stuck around, and you knocked down every single wall I tried to keep you out with. You never gave up on me, and you brought this blinding light into my life. I can't imagine where I would have ended up without you. There were days in high school that I honestly thought my life would have been easier without you, but those were days when I thought this was impossible, that I could never be brave enough to marry the woman of my dreams. But you helped me be brave, you gave me the strength to be the person I wanted to be and get what I want. And what I wanted was you. You're all I've ever wanted Britt-Britt, and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to get to call you my wife for the rest of my life."

Brittany smiles through her tears and looks at the minister. "Can I kiss her yet?"

"Soon," he laughs, nodding towards Ashley and Mercedes to present the rings. The girls present Brittany and Santana with their rings, and they make their promises as they each slip it onto each other's fingers with shaking hands. After repeating a few more things, they're finally allowed to get their mack on. "You may now kiss the bride."

Both girls surge forward and connect their lips, conveying every ounce of love they have flowing through their veins. The room erupts in applause, but they can barely hear anything over the beating of their hearts.

 

The reception is relaxed and fun, just like the girls always wanted. There's a band playing throughout the night, and while they don't serve McDonalds like Santana promised Ashley all those years ago, they do serve a large variety of Ashley approved food, and everyone is having a great time.

Brittany and Santana sit at the head table with Mercedes and Ashley on either side of them, completely wrapped up in themselves until someone makes their way over to share their congratulations with them. Most of the glee club has already stopped by when Rachel makes her way towards them between courses.

"Hey, Berry," Santana greets with a smile, way too blissfully happy to even pretend to be annoyed at Rachel's existence today.

"Brittany, Santana, the ceremony was beautiful, and you both make such stunning brides," the girl tells them sincerely, holding a hand to her heart as she gazes upon the couple. "I know we had our differences in high school, and while I always thought Finn and I would be the first glee club wedding…"

Rachel's voice cracks a little, and Santana's heart instantly drops as she realizes how hard this must be for the other girl. Finn passed away years ago, but she knows Rachel has never really been able to move on completely – and she can't blame her. She knows she would be the exact same way if, God forbid, it had been Brittany. "Rach…"

"No, no," Rachel quickly continues, for once determined not to make this about her. "If it couldn't be us, I'm so happy that it was you. I always knew that what you two shared was very special, and it makes me so happy to see true love prevail."

"Thank you," Brittany response softly, sending Rachel a smile as the other girl quickly excuses herself. Once they're alone again, Brittany cuddles into Santana's side, suddenly more grateful than ever for her wife.

 

The night continues with more eating, more congratulations, and more speeches. Mercedes gives a speech that's more like a stand up act, with the teasing she does and the laughs she gets, while their parents go the much more sentimental routes, leaving the entire room in tears by the time they're done.

Ashley's speech is last, and as she makes her way up to the microphone, she nervously plays with the paper in her hand. "Santana has been part of my family for longer than I have," she starts, smiling at the way some of her family cheer at her words. "My parents tell me that Brittany just brought her home one day and she never left. And I'm so glad she didn't, because I can't imagine Brittany without Santana, and I can't imagine my family without her, either. I have known Santana every single day of my life, and she's been as much a big sister to me as Britt has, and I'm so happy to officially be able to welcome her to the family today." That earns another round of applause from just about every member of the extended Pierce family and Santana can't help but blush at the reaction. She loves all of those crazy people. "Most kids grow up with their parents as examples for love, and while I adore my parents, don't get me wrong, I had Brittany and Santana, too. I had the privilege of watching their relationship grow as I did, and I always thought that if I ever found someone to love half as much as they loved each other, then I would be happy." Pausing, Ashley's gaze shifts over to where Jackson seated, listening with complete attention. "Because of them, I know what true love is, and I never want to settle for anything less. Love isn't always easy, and sometimes it hurts, but I know it's worth fighting for, and today is a testament to that. To Brittany and Santana!"

Everyone claps and with one last look at Jackson, Ashley gives a little bow and quickly makes her way back over to her seat, where she's immediately pulled into hugs. "That was great, Ash," Brittany tells her, kissing her cheek.

"You did great, kiddo," Santana assures her, rubbing a hand up and down her back and giving her a pointed look.

"Make him listen, right?" she shrugs, showing Santana she's not sure it worked, but at least she tried. Santana gives her another hug before they're interrupted by more guests coming to give them their best wishes.

It isn't until almost half an hour later that Jackson finally makes his way over. Ashley watches as he greets his sister first before pulling the blushing brides into hugs and telling them how beautiful the ceremony was and how happy he is for them. "Thanks, Jacks. I'm so glad you came."

"Of course," he replies, waving off Brittany's words. "I wouldn't miss it for the world." He smiles at them before he turns towards Ashley, his smile dimming a bit, but not disappearing. Ashley thinks that's progress. "Hey, Ash."

"H-Hey," she stutters out, surprised he's actually talking to her.

"Your speech was great," he says, shoving his hands in his pockets awkwardly. "I know how nervous you were, but you, uh, you did great."

Ashley feels the blush creeping up on her cheeks and it feels so weird to feel this nervous and unsure around the boy who has been her best friend for seven years. "T-Thanks, Jacks."

"Do you, uh, do you maybe want to go somewhere?" Jackson asks hesitantly, and Ashley can tell he's really trying. "We can talk?"

"Yes," Ashley immediately answers, glancing towards her sisters to make sure it's okay that she leaves for a bit. Santana nods emphatically, shooting her a pointed look and pushing her out of her seat. "Yeah, okay, yeah, let's go find somewhere to talk."

"Use my dressing room," Santana suggests. Jackson nods and waits for the blonde to step around the table before they awkwardly start walking towards the door.

Santana watches after them for a moment before Brittany runs a hand up her arm, getting her attention. "She'll be fine, come on, we've got more wedding clichés to take care of. I wanna shove this cake in your face."

"Don't you dare," Santana laughs, turning towards her wife and pressing a kiss against her pouting lips. "We can get a picture of you feeding it to me, though."

 

The teens come back into the reception hall an hour later and take a spot on the dance floor, Jackson holding his hand out for Ashley to take and pulling her close against him so they can sway to the melody playing. Brittany spots them first and squeezes Santana's hips lightly to get her attention. "Hey, check it out," she whispers, turning their bodies around so Santana is facing them.

"Aw, it looks like they made up," she comments, catching Ashley's gaze as the younger blonde gives her a smile.

"I knew they would," Brittany comments, pressing a soft kiss to Santana's neck before pulling back slightly to look at her wife. "We'll be dancing at their wedding one day."

Santana smiles at the thought. "You think so?"

"Totally," Brittany nods, her eyes moving back to watch her sister dancing with Jackson. "He's her Santana. And if there's one thing I know, it's that Brittanys always end up with their Santanas."

"My wife is so smart," Santana boasts with a grin, pulling Brittany in for another kiss.


	13. Epilogue

"Guess what?" Brittany asks, climbing up into her desk next to her best friend.

Santana looks up from her lunch and smiles at the blonde. "What?"

"My mom and dad told me that I'm getting a little sister!" she beams, her bright blue eyes looking even brighter than they normally do.

"Really?" Santana asks, dropping her sandwich and turning around to give Brittany her full attention. "Your mom is pregnant?"

Brittany shrugs and nods at the same time. She still doesn't really understand where babies come from, but she remembers her parents using that word, and she knows she's getting a baby sister, so that must mean her mom is pregnant. "I guess so. I'm so excited! I asked if I could name her, and they said they'd think about it."

"That's so cool," Santana agrees, the smile on her face faltering as she thinks about it. She's asked her parents for a sister (or even a brother) before, but they always tell her no. "I always wanted a little sister. I wish my mom was pregnant, too."

Brittany hates to see her best friend sad, so she reaches into her lunch box and pulls out the little chocolate bar her mother had packed for her, and pushes it in front of Santana with a smile, hoping it'll cheer her up. She knows Snickers are her favorite, and she always shares with Santana. "We can share."

"Thanks," Santana mumbles, reaching forward to tuck the Snickers bar into her own lunch box.

Brittany laughs. "No, silly," she says, shaking her head. "I mean I'll share my little sister with you. She can be your little sister, too."

Santana's head snaps back up and she looks at Brittany with hopeful eyes, her smile returning to her face. She holds out her pinky. "Promise?"

"Promise," Brittany swears, hooking their pinkies together.

 

"When are my mommy and daddy coming home with Ashley?" Brittany whines, tossing her crayon back into the pile and looking up at her cousin.

"They'll be home soon, Britt," Haley promises, holding out the pink crayon for the little girl to take when she notices that Brittany just has her new sister's name left to color in on the banner. "Do you need the blue, Santana?" The other little girl shakes her head, not looking up, too focused on staying inside the lines. She wants to make sure the banner is perfect for the new baby.

"You said that before!"

Haley laughs and stands up from the table, moving further into the kitchen to look for some snacks for the girls, hoping that will distract them since they're almost done with the banner. She's been babysitting them all afternoon while her mother is with the Pierces getting everything finished at the hospital, and as much as she loves them, there's only so much eight year old activities a teenager can take in one day.

The girls finish up the banner while she makes them some grilled cheese for dinner, and just as they're finishing up, the front door opens and Ellie Pierce enters with hands full of things, the new proud parents right behind her.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Brittany squeals when she hears the door. Forgetting all about her meal, she quickly scrambles off the chair and starts running towards the front door to greet her parents.

"Shh, Britty Bee," her father immediately shushes her, holding a finger over his lips. "Your sister is sleeping."

Brittany stops in her tracks and looks chastised, suddenly nervous about meeting her new sister. "Me and Santana made her a present," she whispers to them, pointing towards the kitchen where Santana and Haley are hovering by the door.

"That's so sweet of you, Britt," Mrs. Pierce smiles gently, carefully adjusting Ashley in her arms. "How about you let us get Ashley settled into her room and you and Santana can bring it up to her?"

Brittany nods and races back to the kitchen, pulling Santana with her. "Finish your sandwiches first," Haley suggests, leaving the girls to finish that while she goes to help her mother.

Ten minutes later, Mr. Pierce leads the girls into the nursery, reminding them to be as quiet as possible. Brittany and Santana nods, shuffling into the room, each of them holding an end of the banner. Mr. Pierce places his hands on their shoulders and encourages them forward, walking with them towards the crib Ashley is currently sleeping in. "Say hi, girls."

"Hi, Ashley," Santana whispers in awe, peeking through the columns on the crib to get a look at the baby. She's never seen a baby this close before, and she's so tiny and pink and Santana thinks she's beautiful. "She looks like you, Britt."

"Hi, Ashley," Brittany repeats, sticking her little finger through the cracks to try to touch the baby. "I'm your big sister, Brittany." Glancing at her best friend, she quickly continues. "And this is my best friend Santana. I promised her that I'd share you with her, so she's your big sister, too, okay?"

Mrs. Pierce holds a hand over her chest as she watches the girls interact with Ashley and she gives her husband a watery smile. "What did you girls make Ashley?"

"Oh!" Brittany nudges Santana and they both step to the side, holding up the small banner they spent all afternoon working on with Haley. It just says 'Welcome home, Ashley!' in bubble letters that Mrs. Pierce assumes Haley wrote for them, and it's signed by 'your big sisters, Brittany and Santana.'

The girls hand the banner over to Mr. Pierce to hang up while they go back to cooing at the baby, and Mrs. Pierce is positive Ashley is gonna be the most loved little girl in the world.

 

After seeing just how much of her parents' attention she has to share now, it only takes about two weeks for the novelty of having a little sister to wear off for Brittany. She quickly learns that when babies aren't being annoying, they're being boring, and she's pretty much over it already. Santana isn't, though.

Anytime Santana comes over, she insists on seeing Ashley so she can coo at her and tickle her and other things Brittany doesn't care to watch because now she has to share _Santana's_ attention, too. She figures it's probably because Santana doesn't have to live with the crying machine, but she sucks it up and always lets Santana get her Ashley fix like she promised before they go off and play.

"Do you girls want to hold her?" Mrs. Pierce asks from the door way, smiling at the way Santana is sticking her finger through the bars of the crib, trying to get Ashley to respond.

"Really?" Brittany asks, excited despite her current discontent with her sister. She's been asking her mother if she could hold her since she brought her home, but she was always told not yet.

Mrs. Pierce nods and steps into the room, reaching over the crib to pick her youngest daughter up. "Come downstairs and I'll let you girls hold her for a bit." Brittany and Santana race downstairs ahead of Mrs. Pierce, crawling up onto the couch and sitting nicely side by side, their little legs sticking out straight so their laps are open and ready for when Mrs. Pierce places Ashley across them. "Support her head, Santana, like this," she instructs, tucking Santana's hand under Ashley's head for her. "And just sit still and try not to jostle her too much."

Both girls do as she says, sitting more still than they ever have, and looking down at the baby laying across their laps. It's one of the few times she's not crying, and even Brittany has to admit she's kinda cute. She rubs her fingers against the bottom of Ashley's little feet, drawing out a sharp giggle from the baby, and yeah, she guesses Ashley is okay.

Santana watches in awe as Ashley's face lights up from her sister's tickling, her eyes a beautiful blue like Brittany's, and Santana beams down at her. She carefully runs a finger over her chubby cheek, tracing her smile, and then bops her nose, grinning wider when Ashley laughs again.

"She likes you," Mrs. Pierce comments, hovering nearby and watching them with a warm smile on her face. Santana certainly seems to have a spell over her girls. Santana looks up at her in question and she nods back down to Ashley. "Ashley likes you. She'd usually be crying by now."

"Of course she does," Brittany butts in, her fingers absent-mindedly playing with Ashley's toes. "Santana's the coolest."

Santana ducks her head at the compliment, and looks back down at the baby in her lap. She holds up her finger and when Ashley wraps her little fist around it, she knows she now has two blondes she'll protect with her life.

 

"Tana, Tana!" Ashley chants the second she gets in the house, not even bothering to take her school bag off before running towards the living room where Brittany and Santana are lounging on the couch watching television.

"Hey, Ash," the older girl greets her with a smile, quickly pulling the child into her lap.

Brittany smiles at the girls, leaning into Santana's side to talk with her sister. She's long since gotten passed her jealousy over the past five years. "How was your first day of school?"

"It was fun, just like you said, Britty," Ashley answers, leaning over to pick up her forgotten school bag and dig through it. "Look what I drawed!"

"What did you draw?" Santana asks, waiting as Ashley pulls a crumbled up piece of paper out of her bag and hands it to the older girl. Santana takes it and holds it up for Brittany to see, too, and from what they can tell, there's three stick figures of varying heights standing in a field, with what looks to be an animal beside them. "What's this?"

"It's us!" she insists, pulling on Santana's hand so she can see the picture. "That's you, that's me, and that's Britty. And there's Tubbs, too. My teacher told us to draw our favorite things!"

Brittany and Santana share a look before they smother Ashley in a big hug.

 

Santana is just putting her second ear bud in when she hears a knock at the door. Sighing, she tears her headphones out and makes her way downstairs to see who is disturbing the pity party she's trying to throw herself. She opens the door and almost completely misses the little girl standing on the other side.

"Ashley?"

The little blonde gives her a sheepish wave before wringing her hands together nervously, looking up at the older girl with a hesitance that she's never had around Santana. "Hi, Tana."

"What are you doing here, squirt?" Santana asks, kneeling down so that she's eye level with the blonde and pushing aside the sadness she feels to give her a friendly smile.

Ashley bites her lip as she studies Santana's face, trying to decide what, if anything, has changed. "I don't see you anymore," she finally says. Santana's face falls, and she knows exactly what she's talking about. "You never come over, and I never get to see you. I asked Britty where you were and she said that I wouldn't understand. Are you mad at me?"

"No, kiddo, no, come here." Santana opens her arms and wraps them around Ashley, squeezing her tightly. "It's got nothing to do with you, Ash. It's just, things are going on with Britt and I, grown up things, that we have to work out, and we're just spending some time apart while we do that. I promise it's not about you."

Ashley sniffles and pulls back from the hug, her hands still on Santana's shoulders as she looks down at her. "I miss you. And Britty does, too."

"I miss you guys, too," Santana sighs, reaching up and brushing Ashley's bangs out of her face. "So much, but it'll be okay, I promise." For the first time since she's known her, Ashley doesn't look like she believes her, and it kills Santana. Thinking quickly, she pokes Ashley in the stomach to lighten the mood. "Hey, how about I pick you up from school sometime next week? We can hang out, get ice cream or something?"

"Really?"

"Really," Santana nods resolutely, smiling at the joy she managed to put on the little girl's face. She really has missed Ashley so much, but with things being so weird with Brittany and all the stuff with Artie and Karofsky and everything, going over and hanging out at the Pierces hasn't really seemed like an option. "Let's go talk to your mom and work it out, okay?"

Ashley nods excitedly, throwing herself back into Santana's arms and Santana's glad she can at least still make one of her blondes happy.

 

"You can't threaten a nine year old boy!" Brittany protests with a laugh, throwing her legs over Santana's lap so she'll stay put.

"I'm not gonna threaten him," Santana argues, rolling her eyes. "I just want to talk to him, make sure we're on the same page before I go. I promise to be nice."

Brittany glances over at where Ashley and Jackson are sprawled out on the carpet, Candyland spread out between them. "Fine, but be nice, or I'll tell Mercedes on you."

"I can take Wheezy," Santana scoffs, giving her girlfriend a peck before she climbs off her and requests Ashley's help getting the cookies they've been baking out of the oven, leaving her alone with Jackson. "Hey, Jacks, come here." The little boy looks over at her and she pats the now empty cushion beside her. Shrugging, he leaves the game forgotten and makes his way over, climbing up and sitting beside her. "I wanna talk to you."

"'Bout what?"

"You know how I'm leaving for college soon?" He nods. "Well, I've got a favor to ask you. Do you think you could watch out for Ashley for me?" Jackson scrunches up his eyebrows in confusion, and it's obvious he doesn't get what she's asking him. "Like, when you're at school and stuff. If someone is picking on her for some reason, Imma need you to step up and protect her. Or to help her with her homework if she needs it, stuff like that. Cause I won't be here to do all of that, and I'm gonna need someone I trust to look out for her for me."

"And you want me to do it?" he asks in awe, feeling pretty special that Santana is giving him such a big job.

Santana smiles, rubbing his head. "I don't trust anyone else with the job. So, we got a deal?" Jackson nods emphatically, and she knows he'll take good care of Ashley. "Thanks, little man."

 

Normally Santana would welcome being straddled by her girlfriend, but this is one of the few times she's trying to fight it. "Britt, come on, let me up!"

"No," Brittany answers, trying to grab Santana's arms to pin them above her head on the couch. "Because if I do, you're gonna get on a plane, fly out to Lima, and get arrested for murder."

"You're damn right I am," she growls, fighting against Brittany's hold, even though she knows it's a lost cause. Brittany's stronger than her and she's got the advantage of being on top. "I'm gonna skin those meatheads alive!"

"It was just a slushie," Brittany laughs, shaking her head at how overdramatic Santana is being. She told Ashley not to tell her what happened, but Mercedes didn't get that memo and let it slip earlier and Santana has been seething ever since. "It's like a McKinley rite of passage. Ashley is fine, and so is Jackson."

"I don't care!" Santana argues, finally getting a hand free and managing to maneuver herself out from under the blonde. She breaks free, but is only able to get a couple of feet away before Brittany has her arms wrapped around her waist and is pulling her back into her lap, keeping her in a bear hug so she won't run away again. "Britt, come on! You know the rules! Pierces don't get slushied! It's a crime punishable by death!"

Brittany bites back another laugh and instead presses a kiss to Santana's cheek, knowing it will calm her down. "And I really appreciated that rule when we were in school," she tells her, knowing it's the only reason she escaped McKinley slushy free, despite being a proud member of the glee club. "But we're not in high school anymore, San, Ashley is. She's just starting high school and she wants to be in glee club. She knows the risk. She's growing up, you can't swoop in and be her big protector everytime she gets hurt. Especially not when we live across the country."

"I knew we shouldn't have come to LA," Santana grumbles, but relaxes against Brittany's hold, twisting in her arms and hugging her girlfriend. "I'm sorry, you're right. It's just hard, you know how I am."

"I do," Brittany smiles, kissing the top of Santana's head. "You love to protect your girls. It's one of the things I love most about you."

Smiling into Brittany's neck, Santana shifts her body again, turning so that she's the one straddling her girlfriend now. "Oh yeah?"

"You know it turns me on when you go all Lima Heights," Brittany smiles, tilting her head back to accept the kisses Santana is pressing against her neck. "Especially when it's in the name of love."

"Mhmm, no wonder you couldn't keep your hands off me in high school," Santana muses, playfully nipping at the pale skin of Brittany's neck before soothing it with the flat of her tongue. "Or after high school."

"Oh Lord," comes an exasperated voice, and they both turn to see Mercedes entering their shared apartment with bags full of groceries. "I'd tell you freaks to get a room, but you already have one. And yet I continue to walk in on you two dry humping on the couch more days than not."

"You'd think you'd be used to it by now then," Santana shoots back, reluctantly getting to her feet. "And yet you continue to bitch and moan every time it happens." Mercedes just rolls her eyes and moves to the kitchen, deciding she doesn't have the energy to argue with Santana this afternoon. Feeling successful, Santana turns back to Brittany and holds out her hand. "Come on, Britts. Let's go have really loud sex in our room so Wheezy will shut up."

 

"Ugh, now I know how Mercedes felt," Santana groans when she spots Jackson and Ashley tangled up together on the couch as she walks in the front door. "No sex in our apartment!"

"San, don't start," Brittany instructs, squeezing her wife's hip as she passes her, moving further into the apartment to put her shopping bags down.

"We're eighteen years old," Ashley argues, moving off Jackson to sit beside him and fix her shirt. "We're almost adults. We can do what we want."

"Not under my roof, you can't!" Santana shoots back, though it's obvious to everyone in the room that she's not actually angry. She just loves to give them a hard time, especially when Jackson gets all nervous and stuttery around her.

Ashley rolls her eyes, running a hand through her disheveled hair. "Man, I can't wait to move into the dorms. I have no idea how you put up with her, Britt."

"She likes it when _I_ have sex," Brittany answers with a shrug, throwing her wife a grin when she hears her laughing from the kitchen.

"We should've stayed with _your_ sister," Ashley mumbles to Jackson, who chuckles and throws an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side.

He presses a kiss to her temple. "Who do you think you're kidding, babe? You couldn't be happier having to put with her shit again."

Curling into her boyfriend's side, Ashley watches as Santana walks over to Brittany and sits down beside her, pressing a sweet kiss to her lips and listening to whatever her wife is babbling about. "Yeah," she sighs, pausing to stick her tongue out at Santana when she makes a face at her. "I guess it's good to be back together again."

 

Brittany looks around the dinner table with a smile, her family spread around and talking loudly with each other, reminding her why she and Santana decided to have this dinner in their home instead of out at a restaurant. It's the first time all three sets of parents have been able to fly down to LA at the same time, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

"When do you want to tell them?" Brittany asks, whispering to her wife beside her as she passes her the salad.

"Before dessert," Santana answers, noticing that everyone still has a lot of food on their plates. Brittany nods and takes Santana's hand under the table, still thankful after all these years that their dominate hands are opposite.

"Are you still taking that psychology class?" Mr. Jones asks his son, passing the rolls over to Mr. Lopez as he waits for an answer.

Jackson shakes his head, glancing at his sister, a bit afraid of what his father might say. He's always been supportive of Mercedes, so he doesn't know why he wouldn't be for him. "No, um, actually, I decided to switch to music."

"He's working with Tana and Cedes at the studio," Ashley cuts in, knowing how nervous her boyfriend has been about telling his parents that switching majors after a year of not enjoying school very much. Now he's thriving.

"He's good, daddy," Mercedes nods from across the table, her fiancé James at her side.

Mr. Jones looks to Santana, who agrees with her friend's words. "He's got a great ear, sir. He's been helping me with recording a lot lately."

"We're glad you're happy, honey," Mrs. Jones tells Jackson, nudging her husband when he doesn't immediately voice his agreement. Mr. Jones rushes to assure his son that they're proud of him, and it's no problem at all. "What about you, sweetie?"

Ashley tells them all about how her studies in journalism are going, how sophomore year is a lot harder than freshmen year had been so far, and Santana nervously picks at her food, pushing it around her plate. "Are you okay, mija?" her mother asks from her other side, making sure to keep her tone low so she doesn't attract everyone's attention.

"Huh?" Santana glances up and notices her mother's eyes on her, and she realizes she had zoned out a bit. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." Her mother nods and is just about to go back to her meal when Santana changes her mind. "Actually, no, I'm not fine. I'm actually really really great."

"San?" Brittany questions, tugging on her hand.

Santana turns around and kisses Brittany softly. "I can't wait anymore, I wanna tell them now. Is that okay?" Brittany's eyes get a bit watery and she nods her head, kissing her wife once more before turning towards the rest of the table. "Hey, guys!" She waits until everyone quiets down and gives them their attention before she continues. "Um, Britts and I have an announcement to make."

"We're so glad that you guys could all be here and we could tell all of you at once, because you guys are our family," Brittany begins, smiling at all the people around her that she loves so much. She pulls Santana's hand up and presses a kiss against the back of it, leaving it up to her since she's so much better with words.

Santana takes a deep breath and a huge grin breaks out on her face. "We're having a baby! I'm pregnant!"

"I call godmother!" both Ashley and Mercedes yell immediately, before anyone else even has time to react. Brittany and Santana laugh at them, having known that's exactly what they'd do, and accept all the congratulatory hugs and kisses from everyone else as the two of them continue to argue.

"Santana! Brittany!" Ashley shouts over everyone. "Tell Mercedes I'm the godmother!"

Brittany giggles at her sister, but nods her head. "Yes, Ashley, Santana and I have talked about it, and we'd like you to be the godmother." Mercedes huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at the youngest blonde as she beams. "We promise you'll be godmother to the next one, Mercedes."

"Better be, puttin up with you two all these years," she jokes, leaning into James when he wraps an arm around her shoulder.

"And Jackson," Santana adds, ignoring Mercedes's comment in favor of addressing her brother. "We were wondering if you'd be the godfather?"

"Really?" he asks, sitting up straighter in his chair.

Santana nods, glancing at Ashley by his side. "I know I can trust you to take good care of the people I love the most."

 

"Hello, mommies," Ashley greets, peaking her head into the room and smiling at the sight of her sisters huddled together on the hospital bed, cooing over their new daughter. "Auntie Ashley comes bearing presents for her god daughter."

"Yeah, yeah, come in," Brittany beams, tearing her eyes away from her daughter long to give her sister a smile in greeting. "Just be quiet, baby girl doesn't like loud noises, does she?"

Ashley quietly closes the door behind her, placing her bags on the bedside chair and plopping down on the other side of Santana, just barely fitting into the space given to her. "She's beautiful, you guys," she marvels, a little afraid to touch her. She's never been around a baby so young before. The only babies she has experience with is her cousins' kids, and she usually only meets them after they're a few months old at the earlier. "Aw, Tana, she looks just like you. Check out those lips!"

"She's gonna be a heartbreaker, just like her mama," Brittany agrees, pressing a kiss to Santana's temple like she's been doing all day, everytime she remembers what an amazing thing she just did for them.

"And her mommy," Santana adds in, leaning into Brittany's side as she continues to stare down at her daughter dreamily.

Ashley watches them and wishes she had a camera with her. "So, what name did you guys decide on? Mom wouldn't tell me."

Sharing a look, Brittany nods to Santana, letting her do the honors. Turning towards Ashley, Santana gives her a watery smile and introduces her to her niece. "This is Elisa Ashley Lopez-Pierce."

"Seriously?" Ashley asks, tears springing to her eyes immediately as both women nod in confirmation. "You guys!" She's careful as she leans over and pulls Brittany and Santana into hugs, before pressing gentle kisses to Elisa's tiny little face. "Oh man, I can't wait to rub this in Mercedes's face."

Brittany shakes her head in disapproval and Santana laughs, thinking about how well she raised her. "So what'd you get her?"

"Oh, right." Leaning over, Ashley pulls the chair closer so she can look through the bag she brought. "Well, I got a lot of things, but while we're being all mushy and sh-stuff, I'll start with this." Pulling a piece of worn out paper from the bag, she hands it over to Santana and watches as she unfolds it, a look of confusion on her face for a moment, that soon morphs into understanding.

"Ash…"

Brittany leans over to get a better look, and immediately recognizes that picture Ashley drew on her first day of kindergarten. The three of them are still standing in some random field with Lord Tubbington by their side, with Jackson and Mercedes having been added in long ago, and now there's a little baby drawn in, too.

Ashley gives a bashful shrug. "My favorite things," she reminds them, as if they didn't already know.

Santana chokes down a sob, still overly emotional from giving birth, and pulls Ashley against her into a fierce hug, mindful of the baby in her lap. "I hope you know you've been bumped down to third favorite now," she jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

"I kinda figured," Ashley laughs, understanding. She wasn't rude enough to tell Santana, but she was kinda bummed down for Jackson awhile ago, too. It was still a very small margin, though. Looking down at little Elisa, she holds her finger out and almost starts crying when a tiny fist wraps around it. "You might've just gotten bumped down, too. Look at that little face."

Santana smiles softly at the sight, remembering the way Ashley grabbed onto her finger like that, like it was yesterday. One look at Brittany and she knows her wife is thinking the same thing.

Two hours later, when a doctor checks in to ask her how everything's going, she looks around at her girls; Elisa staring up at her in wonder, Brittany curled into her side sleeping, and Ashley passed out in the chair, and she tells him it's absolutely perfect.


End file.
